On May 20th, Vietnamese Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh had a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Vietnam Choi Youngsam in Hanoi to discuss future cooperation opportunities.
Choi Youngsam said that South Korea and Vietnam have continuously strengthened and expanded cooperation in many fields, including construction, transportation, housing, and smart cities.
Minister Tran Hong Minh spoke at the working session.
Emphasising the level of scientific and technological development of South Korea in high-speed railways, the ambassador shared, “South Korean enterprises are interested in the North-South High-Speed Railway and are ready to strengthen cooperation, train human resources, and transfer locomotive/carriage manufacturing technology for Vietnam to implement this project.”
In addition, South Korea also wishes to further strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in smart urban development, the implemention of urban transport projects, and manufacturing cars and buses.
Minister Tran Hong Minh said that in transport, South Korea is the second-largest bilateral donor to Vietnam. Since 1996, the South Korean government has been providing capital support for Vietnam to develop transport infrastructure.
Mr Choi Youngsam spoke at the working session.
He added, “The increasingly improved legal system has created favourable conditions for domestic and foreign enterprises to expand cooperation and investment in Vietnam.”
Regarding the level of science and technology in the railway sector, Minister Tran Hong Minh assessed that Korea is one of the first countries in Asia to research, invest and exploit high-speed railways early and is a typical example in transferring and mastering high-speed railway development technology with a localization rate in the production of locomotives/carriages of up to more than 90%.
Overview of working session
“It can be said that this is one of the important factors that helped Korea make great strides in the development and modernization of the railway industry, and similarly, Vietnam is currently paying special attention to strongly promoting the spirit of self-reliance, self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-improvement in all fields, aiming to master science and technology in the process of national construction and development,” Minh emphasized.
He expected that relevant South Korean agencies will continue to share experiences with Vietnam in receiving and mastering high-speed railway development technology and the railway industry, and the operation of freight transport on high-speed railways.