Joining in the workshop, the international representatives have Mr. Park Sang-sik – Korean Consul General in Vietnam, Mr. Lee Won Ik – Minister Counselor of the Republic of Korean (ROK) Embassy in Vietnam, Mrs. Song Jung He, Counselor of the ROK in Vietnam, Ms. Kim Heijin – The 1st Secretary of the ROK in Vietnam, Prof. Yang Moon Soo – University of North Korean Studies in Korea, Prof. Choe Wongi – Korea National Diplomatic Academy, and representatives of the ROK.
Vietnam’s side has Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai – President of Vietnam’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thien – Hanoi National University, Dr. Vu Dinh Anh – Ministry of Finance and representatives of Central Institute for Economic Management, Ministry of Planning and Investment; Academy of Finance, Ministry of Finance and some other member units of VASS as Institute of Vietnam Economics, Institute of World Economic and Politics and all staff of Institute for Northeast Asian Studies.
The workshop is sponsored by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea and received 17 research papers. In the workshop, 5 research papers of Vietnamese scholars and 2 of Korean scholars were selected for the presentation by the organizer.
Korean peninsula has been divided for 70 years and both Korea and North Korea expect to reunite the country in a peaceful method. There are, however, many difficulties and challenges to achieve this purpose. One of barriers is the gap between the economic development of North and South areas. In order to shorten the gap, North Korea should implement the economic reforms; open and development based on market and integrate in the regional and world economic.
Since early 2000s and recent years, North Korea has implemented some economic reforms under the leadership of Mr. Kim Jong-un and it has now achieved certain results. North Korea used to receive financial aids of China, South Korea and even had plans to attract FDI to their economic zones which followed China’s model. However, the local political conditions and America’s embargo regarding to the nuclear policy have led to the inefficient usage of FDI. And, North Korea has not obtained any remarkable achievements.
According to Vietnamese scholars, this country used to have the same starting point as North Korea but they have achieved the positive growth of economy due to the renewal and open policy as well as the integration with world economic. In the field of attracting and using FDI and ODA, Vietnam has had more than 20 years of experiences and their achievements have significantly contributed to Vietnam’s economic – cultural and social growth.
For Korean scholars, the economic collaboration between North and South of Korea has an important meaning for the benefits in the bilateral collaboration, building the foundation for the establishment of economic community, and the future reuniting. The international collaboration is to support the economic restructure and reform of based on three following targets: (1) To stable the economy which is in crisis due to economic difficulties and to fully resolve the poverty through philanthropical support, (2) To build the social indirect capital and human resources as well as technological resources, (3) To officially support for reforms.
One of the limited factors affects the economic reforms and market opening of North Korea is the shortage of financial experts who know about the world economic and market situation. It is very difficult to educate a team of professional experts in a short time so that they need to figure out solutions through technological and human resource support. In order to support technology and empower the human resource, it is necessary to find out solutions to use the aids of international financial institutions that have experiences in providing technological and growth aids as International Monetary Funds and World Bank
In the workshop, all representatives agreed that both North Korea and South Korean should review and apply the experiences of Vietnam in the field of world economic integration, especially how to attract and efficiently use the capital source from ODA and FDI based on the specific conditions, for the target of promoting North Korea’s economy and narrowing the economic gap with Korea as well as promoting the economic unity between two parts of Korea then heading to the fully and completed unity of Korean peninsula in the future.
Nguyen Thu Ha
