ASEAN-RoK to lift up trade value to US$150 billion

VGP – Leaders of ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have agreed to lift up two-way trade value to US$150 billion by 2015.

October 09, 2013 7:31 PM GMT+7

The 16th ASEAN-RoK Summit, Brunei, October 9, 2013 - Photo: VGP

The agreement was reached during the 16^th ASEAN-RoK Summit in Brunei on October 9.

They also agreed to hold a commemorative summit next year to mark the 25^th anniversary of the ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Partnership.

In his remarks to the 16^th ASEAN-RoK Summit, PM Nguyen Tan Dung stressed that Viet Nam and ASEAN always highly value RoK’s commitment to enhancing the strategic partnership with ASEAN, supporting the bloc in building ASEAN Community and narrowing development gap.

He expressed his hope that the RoK would continue to advocate ASEAN’s central role in the regional cooperative frameworks and contribute more to regional cooperative activities through mechanisms like ASEAN Plus Three, East Asia Summit as well as other regional forums.

PM Dung asked the two sides to beef up economic, trade and investment linkages through full realization of ASEAN-RoK free trade agreement, expansion of the ASEAN-RoK trade in goods agreement and working with other partners to accelerate negotiations on the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP).

The Vietnamese Government chief also called on the RoK to support the bloc in implementing the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity and improving its capacity to cope with climate change and manage natural disasters./.

By Hai Minh