At the workshop (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam is animportant trade partner and a strategic destination of businesses from theRepublic of Korea (RoK), experts said at a workshop held in Ho Chi Minh City onJuly 16.
According to the Korean Ministry of Trade,Industry and Energy, Vietnam is the fourth biggest trade partner of the RoK,and an attractive destination in the investment expansion policy to the southof many Korean businesses and groups.
Bilateral trade has increased to 68.3 billionUSD in 2018 from just 500 million USD since the two nations establisheddiplomatic ties in 1992.
Particularly, two years after the signing of theKorea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (KVFTA) in 2015, the bilateral trade doubled.
The RoK has risen to become the biggest foreigndirect investor of Vietnam with total investment of 64.5 billion USD, which isexpected to increase in the coming years.
Nguyen Thi Huyen Ngoc, of the InvestmentPromotion Centre in the South under the Ministry of Planning and Investment,said Vietnam and the RoK have favourable conditions to cooperate in trade andinvestment, especially in high technology and supporting industry.
With a population of over 96 million and averageannual economic growth of 7 percent, Vietnam is a potential consumption market,she said, adding that the favourable geographical position also enables thecountry to access to nearly half of the global markets with only 6-8 flyinghours.
Another advantage of Vietnam in attractingforeign investment is favourable export activities through bilateral andmultilateral free trade agreements, she noted.
Yoon Jooyoung, Chief Representative of the KoreaTrade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in HCM City, said the utilisationof incentives from the KVFTA and the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA)has yet been as effective as expected.
While 90 percent of made-in-Korea goods importedinto Vietnam could take advantage of tax incentives, only 47 percent of made-in-Vietnamgoods exported to the RoK could do that, he noted.
Experts held that businesses should developstrategies to optimise incentives from free trade deals while State managementagencies should simplify procedures to get preferences.-VNA
VNA
