VK Trans Vietnam-Korea Transportation Infrastructure Cooperation Center

Overview

The seminar was held at the University of Transportation and Communication in Hanoi, Vietnam, under a topic of Strategies and Policies in Transport Infrastructure Development: The Korean Experience and Applicability in Vietnam.

The Korea Transport Institute and Vietnam National University of Transportation and Communication jointly held the event, and about 100 representatives participated in the event coming from various organizations related to roads, railroads and safety. The participate organizations are as follows; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, Vietnam, and Safety, Ministry of Transport of Vietnam, Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation(KIND), Korea Transportation Safety Authority, Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee and Vietnam Transport And Development Strategy Institue.

The event aims to evaluate the performance and activities of the Korea-Vietnam Transport and Infrastructure Cooperation Center (hereinafter referred to as the VKTrans), strengthen continuous cooperation between Korea and Vietnam, and seek new direction of cooperation in the transportation infrastructure field.

Main contents

This seminar was conducted in two sessions; a Plenary meeting and a Topic presentation. In the first session, Vietnam's PPP strategy and infrastructure development strategy, and in the second session, major issues in Vietnam's transportation were selected and presented, such as national transport logistics infrastructure construction, smart city & urban development, and traffic safety.
After the completion of the Keynote Speech, a round table discussion was held, and cooperation measures in the transportation infrastructure field between Korea and Vietnam were discussed. The Group Session consists of three separate sessions on specific topics and was conducted by one leader and three presentations and three specialists about Korea and Vietnam. On major issues in the transportation sector of Korea and Vietnam, under the theme of taking into account the role of related organizations at domestic and abroad, major specialists in the field presented and focused on expert discussions. The main programs of the seminar are as follows.

Ⅰ. Opening Ceremony

Watch a video

• Title: Opening VKTrans, after 1 year since March 2018 (4 minutes)

Opening remarks and congratulatory remarks

• Opening Remarks:
  • President Long, Vietnam National Transportation University
  • Jae-Hak Oh, President of the Korea Transport Institute
• Congratulatory Remarks:
  • Do-Hyun Kim, Ambassador of Korean Ambassador to Vietnam
  • Director Hoang Ha of the Ministry of Transportation of Vietnam
  • Director Seung-Heon Han of Korea Institute of Construction Technology
  • Hee-Seung Na, President of Korea Railroad Research Institute
  • Huh Kyung-Koo, President of Korea Overseas Infrastructure Development Support Corporation
  • Sang-soon Jang, Vice President of Korea Transportation Safety Authority

Ⅱ. Plenary Session

Keynote Speech Presentation

• Representative from Korea: KIND's strategy in Vietnam, focusing on the Korean model (Kwang-bok Lee, Department manager of KIND)
• Representative from Vietnam: Vietnam's infrastructure development strategy (Le Do Muoi, Director of TDSI)

Ⅲ. Main presentations

Session 1: Establishment of national transportation and logistics infrastructure (roads and railways)

• Presentation 1: Korea's Railway Technology Policy and Plan (KRRI, Dr Jun Lee)
• Presentation 2: Vietnam's transportation service and logistics upgrading strategy from 2021 to 2030 (MOT, Deputy Director Nguyen Van Bang)

Session 2: Smart City and Urban Development

• Presentation 1: Korea-Vietnam Smart City Cooperation Plan (KICT, Dr Nam-cheol Baek)
• Presentation 2: Innovation of Public Transportation and Policy Implications in Korea (KOTI, Dr Chang-hwan Mo)

Session 3: Transportation Safety

• Presentation 1: Traffic Safety Policy and Strategy in Korea (Research Director Dong-soo Kang, KOTSA)
• Presentation 2: Action Plans for Road Safety in Vietnam from 2011 to 2020 (Director of Pham Hong Thai, NTSC)

Ⅳ. Contents of the seminar

This seminar has two sessions; a plenary session and main presentations. Firstly, the event started with opening ceremonies, after that, keynote presentations and roundtable discussions proceeded. In the second part of the section, expert presentations and discussions by sector proceeded. The opening ceremony, which began with the opening ceremony of Jae-Hak Oh(Head of the Korea Transport Institute) and Ngyen Van Long(President of Vietnam National Transportation University). After that, participants watched a video, named 「Opening a VKTrans, after 1 year since March 2018」 After that, Congratulatory Remarks were shared by Do-Hyun Kim(Ambassador of Korean Ambassador to Vietnam), Seung-Heon Han (Director of Korea Institute of Construction Technology), Hee-Seung Na (President of Korea Railroad Research Institute), and Huh Kyung-Koo(President of Korea Overseas Infrastructure Development Support Corporation).

In the opening speech, Jae-Hak Oh pointed out that the VKTrans, which opened in March 2018, faithfully played a role in promoting cooperation in the transportation infrastructure sector between Korea and Vietnam, sharing its experience and know-how in transportation infrastructure development and support. In the future, he promised to continue to play a role in the platform in the New Southern region. Therefore, Korean companies can participate in various projects of transportation infrastructure developed based on the expansion of experience and knowledge through the VKTrans.

Then, Ambassador Do-Hyun Kim explained the need for continued cooperation in the transportation infrastructure sector between Korea and Vietnam. Seung-Heon Han emphasized the importance of Korea-Vietnam cooperation in construction and urban areas. Kyung-Gu Huh expressed the need to develop and support PPP projects in Vietnam's transport infrastructure.

Kwang-bok Lee, a first keynote speaker at the Korea Overseas Infrastructure Development Support Corporation, presented ' A Vietnam Strategy of KIND: focused on Korea Models'. He mentioned Korea's public-private partnership projects, including Incheon Bridge and Seoul Metro Line 9, etc., and emphasized that it is at the time to consider the future KIND's investment strategy in Vietnam, the form of the future transportation infrastructure sector in Vietnam, and the outcomes of public-private partnership projects.

Le Do Muoi, the director of the Vietnam Transportation Development Strategy Institute (TDSI), announced that we could expect a synergy effect from the public-private consultancies between Korea and Vietnam with the past and present infrastructure status, development direction, and future strategy in Vietnam.

The seminar focused on the diagnosis and the discovery of major issues in transportation, logistics, and infrastructure in Korea and Vietnam, with specialists and associates from various fields, for example, government, research, construction, and private institutions participating.

After the keynote presentation, the round table discussion was led by Sang-Min Lee(Head of Global Transport Research Division at Korea Transport Institute) and Nguyen Duy Viet (Vice President of Vietnam Transport and Communication University). Pannels were six(6) people; Dr Nam-Cheol Baek(Korea Institute of Construction Technology), Tae-Soo Kown(Director of Korea Railroad Research and Development), Dong-Soo Kang(Professor Nguyen Duy Tien of Vietnam National Transportation and Communication University), Tran Hu Minh(Director of Vietnam Railways); which are official representatives from governments, academia, and research institutes from both Korea and Vietnam. The roundtable discussion was focused on the national transportation network, smart city development, public transportation system reorganization, and traffic safety policy.

After that, the second session was followed by a presentation of six specialists from South Korea and Vietnam, and then followed a related discussion and Q&A session. Firstly, Jun Lee, Head of the railway policy research team at the Korea Railroad Research Institute, presented the plan based on Korea's future railway technology policy and the national railway network construction plan in 2020 along with analysis data on Korea's railway status, history and development direction. Secondly, Nguyen Van Bang, Director of the Vietnam Department of Transportation, presented the topic of 'Vietnam's Advancement Strategy for Transportation Service and Logistics from 2021 to 2030', and the correlation between Vietnam's economic growth rate and transportation & logistics services, and investment in R&D in related fields. Besides, he mentioned the necessity of new services in response to social changes, such as smart transportation, and the urgent need for an advanced strategy.

As a third topic, Nam-Cheol Baek, a researcher at the Smart City Research Center of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, explained 'The Cooperation Plan to build smart cities between Korea and Vietnam.' Concerning the VKTrans, which was implemented in 2020, it explains how to manage and use city data through smart city construction and urban development support, city data collection and construction cost management system establishment, and smart city cooperation center. As a result, the necessity of strengthening cooperation between Korea and Vietnam through the management of Vietnam's smart city plan and technology improvement was explained.

Following the fourth session, Chang-Hwan Mo, head of the Transportation Administration & Legal Research Team at the Korea Transport Institute, presented an expansion in the share of public transportation in Korea and its policy implications, history and future. With this development plan, he emphasized the reason why we should apply these cases to Vietnam and real examples of various applications. For example, there are successful cases such as shortening travel time due to the development of public transport, the better quality of life of mobility and the improvement of user convenience, and less environmental damage.

As a fifth session, Dong-soo Kang, head of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority's Transportation Safety Research and Development Institute, presented 'Korea's traffic safety policy and strategy'. It explained the role of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority and mentioned that it is time to discuss the current need for traffic safety plans in Vietnam and the role of the government and the private sector. Tran Huu Minh, the deputy director of the Vietnam National Transportation Safety Commission, explained the last time, under the topic of 'Action Plan for Road Safety in Vietnam from 2011 to 2020'. He mentioned the current status and policy establishment diagnosis and the traffic safety implementation strategy in Vietnam from 2020 to 2030. He emphasized the need to improve the legal system and to establish infrastructure facilities to minimize human victims and traffic accidents.

The international seminar celebrating the first anniversary of the center's opening ended with expert presentations and Q&A, and it was a meaningful time to learn various perspectives on trends, policy directions, experience sharing and strategies in the transportation and infrastructure sectors. The seminar was evaluated as a place to seek new cooperation between Korea and Vietnam by providing detailed transportation infrastructure development strategies for the economic development of Vietnam, along with support for Korea-Vietnam transportation projects.

Ⅴ. Site Tour

After the seminar, participants went to take Hanoi's Urban Railway 2A route, which was opened in April 2019. It aimed to explore future developments such as identifying the plan of urban railway route in Hanoi.

The Hanoi Metro Line 2A is a total of 12 stops and 13.7 kilometers from Cat Linh to Ha Dong. It is expected to ease traffic congestion in Hanoi as it can carry up to 28,000 passengers per hour. In March 2019, the Hanoi Council of People's Commissars confirmed the operating hours (from 05:00 to 23:00) and train fees (monthly 200,000 VDN, daily 30,000 VDN, etc.), and Hanoi's Urban Railway Line 2A is expected to solve the biggest problems of Hanoi such as traffic congestion and environmental pollution including fine dust. In addition, the Vietnamese government highly considers banning motorcycles in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh with the opening of the urban railway by 2030.