RoK looks to expanding financial cooperation with Vietnam

Hanoi (VNA) – Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Choi Jong-ku will pay a four-day visit to Vietnam to seek ways to foster financial cooperation with the country.

During his trip starting March 21, Choi will have meetings with Vietnamese officials, and sign a preliminary agreement on financial technology cooperation with Vietnam, according to a FSC statement.

He will take the occasion to call for Vietnam’s support for RoK financial firms’ operation in the country, and inform Vietnamese partners about efforts made by RoK President Moon Jae-in in promoting relations with Southeast Asian nations.

Vietnam, one of the most important trade partners of the RoK, is home to 48 branches of 34 RoK financial companies.

According to a report of the Korean International Trade Association (KITA), trade between the two countries is expected to exceed 100 billion USD in 2020, making Vietnam the second biggest importer of the RoK.

The report attributed the increasing two-way trade to the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the RoK, which came into effect in December 2015.

The RoK’s exports accounted for 22.1 percent of Vietnam’s total imports in 2017, it noted.

The RoK is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with total accumulated capital reaching 57.6 billion USD by the end of 2017. It remains Vietnam’s second biggest trade partner, with two-way trade hitting 61.5 billion USD last year.

The two countries have also witnessed fruitful cooperation in the fields of tourism, official development assistance (ODA) and labour. In 2017, more than 2.4 million Korean tourists visited Vietnam.

Around 150,000 Vietnamese expats are living in the RoK and vice versa, actively contributing to the bilateral cooperation and socio-economic development in each country.-VNA