President of South Korea Moon Jae-In during a joint press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) in Seoul lauded President Rodrigo Duterte for his effective leadership.
Moon said that the leadership of Duterte gave a boost to the economy of the Philippines which resulted in his popularity among the Filipinos.
“I take my hats off to President Duterte’s leadership which has enabled rapid economic growth and social stability, drawing great support from the people of the Philippines in the process,”
“The Philippines is currently working to realize national Vision 2040 under President Duterte’s
outstanding leadership,” he added.
He thanked President Duterte for his promise to protect the lives of the South Korean nationals in the Philippines.
President Moon Jae-In and President Rodrigo Duterte Photo: PCOO
Moon vowed that they would participate in the upcoming projects of the Philippines.
“In particular, I look forward to seeing the Korean companies’ participation further expanded in the fields of transportation, energy, and infrastructure through our cooperation in the new industries such as info-communications as well as science and technology. We will create the growth engine for the future together,” he said.
“President Duterte and I agreed to designate the year 2019 as the year of mutual exchanges between Korea and the Philippines to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations,” he added.
The South Korean leader also said that he’s hoping that more Filipinos are going to visit his country.
“I hope to see more people from the Philippines visit Korea as well,” Moon said.
1.6-M South Koreans tourists visited the Philippines last year, while 450,000 Filipinos traveled to South Korea.
“The people of our two countries will visit each other more frequently and enhance the understanding in communication among them,” Moon said.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte praised Moon for focusing on attaining peace with North Korea.
“I commended President Moon for his vision of bringing peace, stability, and prosperity to the Korean peninsula. His selfless dedication is demonstrated by the historic Inter-Korean Summit (in April), which resulted in the (signing of the declaration),'” Duterte said
“The Philippines is hopeful that positive developments over the past several months will continue and contribute positively toward the goal of the denuclearization in [the] Korean peninsula,” he added.
In response, Moon said that the support of President Duterte would contribute to South Korea’s mission to maintain peace in the peninsula.
“His support will be of great help to us on our journey to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. Our two countries will further strengthen our cooperation and that goes beyond the Peninsula to uphold peace in the region, he said.
According to the sources, South Korea offered $1-billion worth of official development assistance (ODA) to the Philippines.
The Philippines also sacked $5-B worth of trade deals from South Korean businessmen.