Da Nang, Daegu (Korea) continues to beef up cooperation

(VNF) – In a recent meeting with Vice Mayor of Daegu city (Korea), Kim Seung Su, Vice Chairman of Da Nang city Ho Ky Minh expressed his gladness at the development of two countries’ ties in multiple aspects.

Vice Chairman of Da Nang municipal People's Committee, Ho Ky Minh presents a souvenir to Daegu city's Vice Mayor Kim Seung Su on May 11. (source: danang.gov.vn)

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the People’s Commitee of Da Nang, Ho Ky Minh, thanked the authority of Daegu city for paying attention to promoting cooperation activities with Da Nang. He stated that specific joint projects will contribute to deepening two cities’ friendship and cooperation.

He furthermore requested Da Nang and Daegu to launch more practical cooperation programmes, especially in the sphere of culture, education, healthcare, urban management and tourism service.

Kim Seung-Hu, vice Mayor of Daegu city, for his part, stated that among tourists from the South East Asia, the number of Vietnamese tourists in Korea has been growing at the highest rate. In 2017, Korea welcomed 320,000 tourist arrivals from Vietnam, marking a 30% increase compared to 2016.

The Korean Vice Mayor also emphasized the commonalities shared by Da Nang and Daegu in terms of natural characteristics and the development path, noting that based on these similiarities, two cities should enhance cooperation in culture, attracting investment, urban management, tourism development to comprehensively tighten and deepen the two localities’ bonds.

Kim Seung-Su said, in the time to come, he hopes that Vietnamese tourism companies in general and in Da Nang in particular, will come up with more exciting tours for Vietnamese tourists to Korea, to help bring more Vietnamese tourists to the country.

At the same time, he called for the design of tours which matches with the preference of Korean people, to attract more Korean visitors to Da Nang.

At the meeting, under the witness of the two cities’ leaders, Director of Da Nang Radio and Television Broadcast Nguyen Hoai Nam and Kim Jae Uk, CEO of the Daegu-based Taegu Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch cooperation activities in the field of radio broadcast expertise.

In the evening of the same day, the Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) in Vietnam joined hand with relevant authorities of Daegu city to hold a conference promoting Daegu tourism 2018, themed “Tourism Night in Daegu”, aiming to boost the number of Vietnamese tourists to the Korean city.

At the conference, representative of Daegu introduced to over 80 guests who are from tourism companies, air carriers firms and press agencies in Da Nang on the city’s specialties, sights of interests, shopping experiences.

Director of Da Nang Radio and Television Broadcast and CEO of TBC (Korea) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch cooperation in radio broadcast expertise (source: danang.gov.vn)

Since Da Nang and Daegu officially kick started their cooperation in October 2004, numerous joint projects have been successfully conducted, such as delegates exchange at city level, exchanges between students, officers, as well as charitable activities.

By the end of April 2018, there are 112 Korean-invested projects in Da Nang, with total investment value of USD 556 millions.

By the end of April 2018, there are over 124,000 tourist arrivals from Vietnam to Korea, marking an year-on-year increase of over 40% .

Meanwhile, Korean tourists also top the list of foreign tourists coming to Da Nang in recent years. The city annually receives around 90,000 tourists arrivals from Korea.

Last year April, a new air route connecting Da Nang and Daegu, was launched by Korean best low-cost carrier T’way Airlines, contributing to the increase of tourists.

Especially, in recent years, Da Nang and Daegu have collaborated to complete a meaningful project, aiming to foster Vietnamese people's reading culture: the Da Nang - Daegu Book cafe – Park, launched in November 2017. With total investment of US$45,000 ($30,000) sponsored by Daegu city, it was the first co-operative project between the two cities in 2017.

The park, which combines a café, reading space and rest-stop for locals and tourists, has become the first free book reading centre in the downtown community.

A corner of the Book-cafe-park in Da Nang (source: taidanang.com)

At the moment, the two sides are working on constructing a center for smart urban safety management and prevention of natural disasters in Da Nang.

At the same time, the people-to-people link of Da Nang and Daegu also enjoys positive growth with regular bonding projects. Last year September, a memorable exchange program connecting students from Daegu and the Vietnam National University-HCM City was held at the university’s campus in Thu Duc District.

During their four-day stay, the delegation of South Korean students and officials had the chance to learn more about Vietnam’s culture and history via a tour exploring Da Nang city and HCM City.

Earlier, students, lecturers and staff from Vietnam National University-HCM City took part in a meaningful exchange programme in Daegu in early July.

Daegu is the third largest city in Korea with beautiful natural landscape throughout the year. Some of the famous destinations are Yuga Temple, Apsan Park, Suseong Lake, Ayang Railroad Bridge.

Daegu is also rich of cultural and historical value, with many artifacts from the Bronze Age, including dolmen, mandolin-shaped bronze daggers, and plain-patterned earthenware have been discovered there.

The city is also known for its persity of cuisines, convenient traffic system, fabulous shopping centers and a unique culture which is made up of both traditional and modern features./.

( Translated by Phi Yen )