Vietnam and Korea make effort towards the goal of two-way trade turnover of US$150 billion by 2030

On July 30, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a dialogue with the Korean Ambassador and representatives of Korean associations and businesses in Vietnam. At Dong Nai Location, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee chaired conference with leaders of departments and sectors.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the conference

At the dialogue conference, Korean businesses had a number of recommendations to the Government, ministries, and localities to remove difficulties and obstacles to help businesses develop better. Here, leaders of ministries, branches, and localities answered and gave the specific answers to the recommendations and proposals.

According to a government report, South Korea is currently Vietnam's third largest trading partner after China and the United States. In 2021, two-way import-export turnover reached US$78 billion (150 times higher than in 1992), accounting for 11.6% of Vietnam's total import-export turnover. Korea is the largest FDI partner in Vietnam, currently investing in 19 out of 21 economic sectors and in 59/63 provinces and cities with 9,383 active projects, with a total registered investment capital of nearly US$80 billion. In the first 7 months of 2022, Korea ranked 2nd out of 72 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with a total investment of nearly US$3.3 billion.

Korean businesses raise the suggestions at the dialogue

Many large Korean enterprises and corporations have invested in Vietnam such as Samsung, LG, Hyosung, Hanwha, Hyundai, CJ Group, Lotte, etc. Particularly, Samsung Electronics Vietnam has a total investment capital of about US$20 billion, attracting over 125 thousand employees, accounting for 0.8% of the total number of employees working in enterprises nationwide. In 2021, Samsung Electronics Vietnam generates VND1.7 million billion in revenue; accounting for 13.6% of the total production value of the whole industry.

Vietnam is Korea's largest economic partner in ASEAN, 30% of Korean investment in ASEAN is directed to Vietnam; Vietnam - Korea trade turnover is equivalent to 50% of total trade turnover between Korea and ASEAN. In the past period, the two economies have complemented each other very well.

Deputy Minister of Transport answers the questions of Korean businesses at the conference

At Dong Nai Location, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee said that up to now, Korean investors currently have 428 projects with a total investment capital of US$7.08 billion, ranked the first in the number of projects and total investment capital of foreign investors investing in the province. Most businesses investing in Dong Nai have achieved good results. Recently, Korean enterprises have continuously invested in new investments and increased capital to expand production in Dong Nai with many diverse fields of activity such as footwear, textiles, wood products, electrical components, electronics, supporting industrial products, etc.

Concluding the dialogue, the Prime Minister stated that, after 30 years of establishing diplomatic relations, the Vietnam-RoK cooperation relationship has been continuously consolidated and developed in a substantive and comprehensive manner, outstanding on both bilateral and multilateral levels, in many different fields of cooperation, creating a cooperation space between businesses of the two countries.

Korea is a large economy with important influence in Asia, and has been the leading partner of Vietnam in almost all fields. Vietnam is a fast-growing, dynamic economy, with nearly 100 million people, playing an important role in ASEAN and East Asia; Investing in Vietnam is also accessing the large ASEAN market with more than 600 million people. The two countries are in the process of ratifying the RCEP Agreement and are aiming for a two-way trade turnover of US$100 billion by 2023 and US$150 billion by 2030.

At Dong Nai Province, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee answeres the questions of Korean businesses

"We always consider South Korea a top and long-term important strategic partner; we look forward to working with Korea to deepen the two countries' relations with the important pillar and driving force of economic and trade cooperation. The good achievements of 30 years of cooperation and the similarity of strategic interests between the two sides will be "the driving force" towards raising the Vietnam - Korea relationship to a "partner" comprehensive strategy", further tightening the bond between the two peoples, the two countries are increasingly strong", the Prime Minister affirmed.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, departments, functional agencies and localities to acknowledge, study and soon come up with specific handling measures to remove difficulties and problems that organizations and businesses of Korea have mentioned.