President Moon Jae-in attended the Korea-Vietnam Business Forum on the second day of his state visit to Vietnam. 

The Forum was attended by some 650 people from the two countries. Attending from the Korean side were 181 people from 31 conglomerates, 21 middle-sized businesses, 88 SMEs and 40 public institutions and associations as well as the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the host of the event. Vietnamese participants included officials from 200 businesses and organizations.

What made this event especially significant was the attendance by many high-ranking Vietnamese government officials, including President Tran Dai Quang. This is regarded as a testament to enthusiastic attention by the Vietnamese Government and businesses to bilateral economic ties that have recently become even closer.

In his keynote address, President Moon set forth the directions of economic cooperation for the next 25 years with Vietnam, a key partner in forming a Korea-ASEAN joint community, marking the inaugural year of the pursuit of cooperation with ASEAN through the New Southern Policy. They include the establishment of mutually beneficial economic cooperation, working together for the enhancement of intra-regional connectivity, which is a shared goal of ASEAN members, making joint efforts to secure future growth engines and pursuing economic cooperation centered around job creation. 

Amid the surging quantitative growth in bilateral economic relations, the forum highlighted the fact that the Korean Government’s New Southern Policy aimed at creating a people-centered economic cooperation community had fully begun in the area of the economy. It also proposed a direction for economic cooperation between Korea and ASEAN members in the years to come.