Vietnam expects a new wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) from theRepublic of Korea (RoK) in the wake of the recently signed bilateralfree trade agreement (FTA).
The RoK surpassed majorinvestors from Japan and Singapore to become the biggest investor inVietnam with hundreds of projects in 2014 and the first four months ofthis year.
The RoK’s Hyosung group, with twoinvestment projects worth 995 million USD in southern Dong Nai province,has received an investment licence to implement an industrial yarnmanufacturing project worth 660 million USD in the province, the largestFDI project in Vietnam in January-April.
Many othergiants from the RoK such as Lotte, Samsung, Kumho, and Taekwang plan toexpand their operations in Vietnam, which helped to attract hundreds offoreign investors to the Southeast Asian country.
For example, Samsung manufacturing complexes in northern Bac Ninh andThai Nguyen provinces lured nearly 100 RoK suppliers.
Most recently, the RoK’s ACE Technology met with authorities fromnorthern Ha Nam province to discuss investment plans for a wirelessaerial manufacturing plant for smart phones with a total capital of 70million USD.
According to the Ministry of Planningand Investment, Korean investment projects were previously carried outby small-and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on garments, textilesand footwear.
Yet in present day, moremultinational RoK groups are investing in Vietnam in high technology,electronics, real estate, manufacturing and trade. They accounted foronly 5 percent of RoK’s projects in the country but 70 percent ofinvestment capital.
According to the KoreanInternational Trade Association (KITA), the majority of Korean companiesplan to expand business in emerging foreign markets in 2015 withVietnam as the most favourite destination.
KITA’ssurvey revealed that 49 percent of the 540 Korean businesses surveyedabout the investment climate in 32 countries confirmed that they plan toexpand operations in Vietnam this year in anticipation of opportunitiespresented by the free trade agreement.
As of April20 this year, RoK investors owned a total registered capital of over38.54 billion USD in 4,333 valid projects in Vietnam, according to theForeign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning andInvestment.-VNA