With K-culture booming in Southeast Asia, Seoul looks to expand city-to-city cooperation
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will travel to Vietnam and Malaysia this week for a six-day visit aimed at strengthening partnerships with Southeast Asian capitals and advancing the city’s goal of becoming a “global leading city,” the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday.
The local authority said the visit comes as Koren cultural exports, including music, cuisine and television, continues to drive rapid growth in interest in the city. Seoul aims to use this momentum to strengthen its global branding, support Korean businesses seeking to enter the region and expand strategic partnerships with capital cities.
Oh will begin the trip in Hanoi on Friday, where he will attend the 2025 Seoul-Hanoi Urban Policy Sharing Forum. He will meet with the chair of the Hanoi People’s Committee and deliver a special lecture at Hanoi University. He will then travel to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to participate in Seoul tourism promotion events before returning to Korea on Monday night.
During the policy forum in Hanoi, Oh will share Seoul’s experience in waterfront redevelopment, digital government and smart-city innovation — areas the Vietnamese capital is actively exploring as it prepares large-scale development plans for the Hong River area.
In the afternoon, he is scheduled to meet the newly appointed Hanoi People’s Committee chair to discuss concrete cooperation projects between the two cities.
Oh will also join a roundtable with Korean businesses operating in Hanoi to hear proposals on local industry trends and networking support.
Later in the day, he will visit the “Seoul Beauty Promotion & Experience Center,” a three-day exhibition aimed at showcasing K-beauty technology and brands to local consumers.
On Saturday morning, Oh will tour Bat Trang Ceramic Village, a traditional craft district redeveloped into a cultural tourism site, before departing for Kuala Lumpur.
After arriving in Malaysia, Oh will visit the River of Life, a major waterfront restoration project credited with improving flood resilience and revitalizing cultural tourism around the Klang and Gombak rivers.
On Sunday, he will meet with members of AGIKO, Malaysia’s largest alumni network of Korean-educated graduates, to discuss how to strengthen long-term bilateral cooperation.
On Monday, Oh will take part in the signing of an agreement between the Seoul Business Agency and TikTok Southeast Asia to help Seoul-based companies expand into the rapidly growing regional media commerce market.
The mayor is scheduled to return to Seoul late Monday.
jychoi@heraldcorp.com
