Ba Ria-Vung Tau strengthens multifaceted ties with South Korea’s Jeollanam-do Province

The new representative office opened on November 27, 2019.

A Ba Ria-Vung Tau official said that the province will continue to create the most favorable conditions for South Korean businesses that have invested and will invest in the province. The province will establish active connections with the Jeollanam-do’s representative office in Ho Chi Minh City to promote cooperation.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau province had signed a friendship and official cooperation agreement with Jeollanam-do way back in May, 1997. Hence the province has always accorded great importance to maintaining and promoting its relations Jeollanam-do in particular and South Korean localities in general, the official said.

In July this year, a mission from the South Korean province, headed by Governor Kim Yung-rok, visited Ba Ria-Vung Tau and held official meetings with top local officials.

Senior officials of Ba Ria - Vung Tau and South Korea’s Jeollanam-do provinces at the signing ceremony of the Action Program on Agricultural Cooperation on July 1, 2019

Ba Ria-Vung Tau province’s Vice Chairman, Le Tuan Quoc, chaired the meetings with the mission. Welcoming the delegation on their working visit, he briefed the visitors about the potentials and strengths of the province in the fields of industry, seaports, port logistics services, tourism and hi-tech agriculture. He expressed his belief that the meetings would lead to strengthened cooperation between the two localities and that agreements would be reached to further promote multifaceted ties, especially in agriculture, industry and seafood.

Thanking the provincial leaders for their warm welcome, Kim Yung-rok said he appreciated the socio-economic development achievements of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. He also mentioned Jeollanam-do’s strengths in agriculture and fisheries, with main products like strawberry, pineapple, seaweed and abalone.

Jeollanam-do was actively applying scientific and technological advances in agriculture and have achieved very high economic efficiency in this field, Kim said.

He said he wished that both Jeollanam-do and Ba Ria-Vung Tau will organize further visits by missions and hold exchanges to learn from each other’s experiences and share information to further develop cooperation in agricultural and aquaculture development.

Le Thi Tan Tien, Director of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Department of Foreign Affairs speaks at the inauguration of the Jeollanam-do Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City

The two localities signed an Action Program on Agricultural Cooperation to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing Friendship and Cooperation that they’d signed on May 12, 1997.

Under the program, the two sides will set up a working group with two focal agencies, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province and the Agricultural Research and Development Institute of Jeollanam-do Province. They would also hold an annual seminar, rotating the location alternatively. Through the seminars, both sides will share information and experiences on cultivating tropical plants and harvesting their genetic resources. They would organize working visits, attend agricultural conferences and exhibitions, and carry out personnel exchanges for short or medium-term agricultural research and training. The cooperation program would be valid for 5 years from the date of signing and will automatically be extended for another 5 years.