Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi met and worked with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) to Vietnam Choi Youngsam on March 7th, 2024, in Hanoi. Leaders of a number of units under the Ministry of Construction and officials of the Korean Embassy to Vietnam attended the meeting.
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Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi presented a painting of Vietnamese village landscape to new Ambassador Choi Youngsam.
During the meeting, he expressed his pleasure at the expanded and deepened cooperative relationship between Vietnam and Korea in all fields. The two countries officially upgraded their relationship to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" in December 2022.
According to Ambassador Choi Youngsam, the results achieved in Vietnam - Korea cooperation recently have made important contributions from the construction industry of the two countries. MOLIT recently identified Vietnam as a key partner in Korean ODA cooperation and KOICA is also very interested in providing ODA capital in the construction sector to Vietnam... This will be an important basis to promote the cooperation between the Ministry of Construction and Korean partners in the coming time.
Ambassador Choi Youngsam proposed that the two sides coordinate to organize a dialogue conference for construction businesses and expected that this event would bring positive effects to the construction businesses of the two countries, especially on the occasion of the business trip of the Prime Minister of Vietnam to Korea in the near future. In addition, the Ambassador expressed his hope that the Project "Establishment of the Vietnam - Korea Cooperation Center for Smart Cities and Construction Technology" will continue to receive the attention of the Ministry of Construction for officially opening in June 2024.
The Ministry of Construction aimed to enhance cooperation with Korean partners by coordinating the organization of conferences and seminars. Additionally, it seeked to strengthen exchange activities between working groups to learn from Korea's experience in various fields, including urban development management, infrastructure, water supply and drainage, social housing development, and support for ODA projects. These projects have helped the Ministry of Construction to gain more information and experience in researching and improvement of the legal system, management tools for industry development and capacity building of Construction industry staff.
The Ministry of Construction highly appreciated Korea's experience in smart urban development, efficient energy use, and social housing development and hoped that in the coming time, Korea would continue to pay attention and support Vietnam in improving capacity in the fields of planning, urban areas, social housing development, and implementation of technical assistance projects; ODA and experience support projects; especially in the period of Vietnam is developing policies on technical infrastructure, water supply and drainage.
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Overview of the working session
The Ambassador also noted that, thanked Minister of Construction for the attention and guidance, establishment of the Vietnam-Korea Cooperation Center on smart urban areas and construction technology has progressed smoothly. It is expected that relevant parties would coordinate efforts to complete within this year.
Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi affirmed that, within the scope of its functions and tasks, the Ministry of Construction encouraged and created favorable conditions for international businesses as well as Korean businesses, to expand cooperation and investment in Vietnam, in accordance with Vietnamese law regulations.
At the same time, the Minister affirmed that units and authorities of the Ministry of Construction would continue to exchange experiences and collaborate with Korean partners to facilitate the progress of joint projects under development.