Vietnam - Korea strengthen cooperation in human resource training and railway exploitation and operation

On the afternoon of April 1, at the headquarters of Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), Chairman of the Board of Directors Dang Sy Manh had a meeting and worked with his counterpart from Korea Railway Corporation (Korail) to exchange experiences and promote cooperation in railway management, exploitation and operation, especially high-speed railway.

Attending the meeting, the Korean delegation included Mr. Han Moon-hee, Chairman and General Director of Korail, Deputy General Directors and leaders of the International Cooperation Department, Public Relations Department, and Construction Engineering Department. The Vietnamese delegation included Chairman of the Board of Directors Dang Sy Manh, General Director Hoang Gia Khanh, and leaders of the International Technology Department, Personnel Organization Department, Infrastructure Management Department, and related Departments.

At the meeting, Chairman of the Board of Directors Dang Sy Manh said that along with the recent approval of a number of major railway projects by the Vietnamese National Assembly, from now until 2035, the scale and market of Vietnam's railways will reach 7,000km, including new railways, high-speed railways and urban railways. In particular, VNR continues to be assigned the task of organizing the management, exploitation, operation and maintenance of the existing railway network. At the same time, it will receive the management and maintenance of infrastructure and organize operations and exploitation; mobilize other enterprises to invest in vehicles; continue to restructure, build a management model, and maintain infrastructure to ensure unity, modernity and efficiency; participate in the development of the railway industry. Comrade Dang Sy Manh thanked Korail and the Chairman for their effective cooperation with VNR in the past time, and expressed his hope that in the face of the opportunities of Vietnam Railways in the coming time, the two sides will continue to promote stronger cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefit. For his part, Chairman Han Moon-hee also shared some important information about Korail. Accordingly, Korail currently has 30,000 employees, exploiting and operating 5,437 km of national railways, including 4,334 km of conventional railways and 1,103 high-speed railways, 100% standard gauge. In addition, Korail also owns 741.4 km of urban railways. The total number of stations managed by Korail is 896, of which 69 stations serve high-speed railways, 456 stations serve passenger transport by conventional railways, 76 stations serve freight transport and 295 stations serve urban railways. Chairman Han Moon-hee expressed his willingness to share experiences and promote cooperation with VNR, and at the same time hoped to have the opportunity to strengthen business cooperation with VNR in the future.

Also at the meeting, Chairman Han Moon-hee respectfully presented VNR with a box of ballast stones to display at the Vietnam Railway Museum. In response, Chairman Dang Sy Manh expressed his deep gratitude and considered this a particularly good relationship between the two sides, as this was the first artifact gift VNR received to display at the museum. Chairman Dang Sy Manh happily shared with his counterpart Han Moon-hee about VNR's goal of building a museum worthy of the history and heritage of Vietnam's railways. This museum will not only be a place to tell stories, introduce and display artifacts of the Vietnam railway industry, but also introduce to the public and Vietnamese people stories and images of the world's railway industry. Continuing, Chairman Han Moon-hee said that Korail currently also has a railway museum, but the scale is still modest. By May 2026, the company's Board of Directors will approve the plan to continue expanding this museum.

Earlier the same day, VNR Deputy General Director Tran Anh Tuan had a meeting with Korail Deputy General Director Kim Won-Eung on the human resource development plan for Vietnam's high-speed railway project and Korail's regulations on high-speed railways. Korail leaders said that the Korean side has approved a budget of 3 billion won, equivalent to about 51 billion VND to support human resource training for VNR. This June, a preliminary plan will be released, and between October and December, a detailed plan will be made to implement the goal of training 14,000 human resources for high-speed railways that the Korail General Director and VNR General Director have approved. For his part, VNR Deputy General Director Tran Anh Tuan thanked Korail for its enthusiastic support. He also shared that just 3 days ago, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the implementation of high-speed railway by the end of 2026, which is earlier than the previous 2027 plan approved by the National Assembly. Mr. Tran Anh Tuan shared that he had the opportunity to visit and work at Korail and was very impressed with Korail's business organization and operation capacity, especially the quality of its services. Korail's revenue of 450 million USD from station business in 2023 is a dream number for the railway industry of any country. And VNR also really wants to learn from Korail's experience in this field.

The working trip to Vietnam by the Korea Railway Corporation (Korail) delegation lasted 3 days. Previously, on March 31, Korail and VNR attended the Vietnam - Korea Railway Cooperation Forum at Lotte Hotel, 54 Lieu Giai, Hanoi, and witnessed the Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony between VNR - Korea National Railway - Korea Railway Corporation. Up to now, the main cooperation between VNR and Korail has been carried out in three contents including: Exchange of working delegations; Cooperation in human resource training; Coordination in implementing projects such as the project "Improving railway safety management capacity in Vietnam", the project "Cooperation in developing optimized synthetic fiber sleepers for VNR", and the project "Building capacity for high-speed railway operations in Vietnam (2026-2028 period)".

Source: https://vr.com.vn/dau-tu-du-an/viet-nam-%E2%80%93-han-quoc-tang-cuong-hop-tac-dao-tao-nguon-nhan-luc-va-khai-thac-van-hanh-duong-sat.html