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Asia Minute: Vietnam marks an anniversary with a South Korean summit meeting

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during the G20 leaders summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022.
Dita Alangkara
/
AP Pool
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during the G20 leaders summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022.

The president of Vietnam will be the first foreign leader to visit South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol since Yoon took office in May.

It's been 30 years since South Korea officially recognized Vietnam and three years before the United States did in 1995.

Today, nearly 20% of all foreign investment capital in Vietnam comes from South Korea.

That figure comes from the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam.

It includes assembly lines of Samsung, and other consumer electronics companies — but the business presence is not limited to factory work.

Steelmaker POSCO is in Vietnam, as well as hotels and department stores run by the Lotte conglomerate.

The Chamber's vice president told the Hanoi Times that banking and insurance companies are also interested, but it would help if Vietnam continued to improve its legal system.

After all, while global capitalism plays a big role in the economy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, control of the country is firmly in the hands of the Communist Party.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has been in office since April 2021, and was prime minister for five years before that.

But as president, he's the second power in the country, behind the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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