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North Korea's Prime Minister Kim Yong-il arrived in Vietnam last Friday, the first visit in six years by a senior North Korean leader to the country. For the last five days in Vietnam, Kim held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart and paid a call on Nong Duc Manh, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the day after his arrival. But except for these talks, his delegation focused almost all of its schedule on tours of industrial facilities.
As soon as the prime ministers' talks were finished last Saturday, the first day of their formal schedule, Kim and his delegation went first to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, the key government agency that manages and controls foreign investment and the economic opening policies. Foreign direct investments in Vietnam exceeded US$11 billion this year as of last Saturday, up more than 33 percent year-on-year. Kim reportedly said Vietnam's know-how in attracting foreign investment is "amazing."
Late in the afternoon that day, Kim and entourage left Hanoi for Tuan Chau Island in Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. Immediately after they unpacked, they were briefed by the provincial governor on his province's know-how on tourism development. Tuan Chau Island, at 825,000 sq. m is a resort area a 10-minute car ride from Ha Long Bay. The island, furnished with a large-scale resort facility and an 18-hole golf course, is highly popular as a tourist attraction in the area.
The following day, Kim visited Ha Tu coal plant, the largest anthracite coal mine in Vietnam, and Haipong Harbor, the logistics hub in the north. Haipong is a port for all cargo containers for exports and imports in northern Vietnam. North Korea has reportedly decided to benchmark the port for its latest plan to develop Haeju Port.
The North Korean prime minister is scheduled to visit the Tan Thuan industrial complex in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic hub in the south, on Tuesday, the last day of his formal schedule. The industrial complex is Vietnam's first and most successful export processing zone. It also houses many foreign companies from Taiwan and Japan -- and eight South Korean enterprises. Its rate of operation exceeds 85 percent. For this reason, local experts say, the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North may want to use it as a success model, .
Local diplomatic sources said all this could suggest that North Korea may begin implementing a Vietnam-style economic opening policy.
Since 1986 when it began its "Doi Moi" reform policy, Vietnam has continued to achieve remarkable economic growth of more than 8 percent annually. In its latest issue, the Hong Kong weekly Yazhou Zhoukan reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il expressed his intention to Nong Duc Manh, who was on a visit to Pyongyang in mid-October, that he would benchmark Vietnam's reform and opening policy.
An official at the South Korean Embassy to Vietnam said, "North Korea may have decided that it would be better to use Vietnam, which is gradually opening up under the leadership of the Communist Party, as a model, rather than China, which is pushing for more rapid reform and opening."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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