Korea Expo 2016 opening promises major success

The two-day exhibition attracted 70 Korean businesses to showcase their products to over 350 potential Vietnamese distributors and hosts some 70 buyers from other ASEAN countries.

Exhibited items are subject to the tariff reduction roadmap under the newly ratified Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement, including beauty care, kitchen-household gadgets, cosmetics and fashion, foodstuffs and beverage, LED devices, input materials for the light industry.

In recent years, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Korea has seen impressive growth.
By 2015, Vietnam surpassed Japan to become Korea’s third largest export market.

“Despite the decrease in Korea’s total trade volume in 2016, exports to Vietnam still grew 15 per cent so far. Similarly, this year, Korea imported an aggregate $10 billion from Vietnam, up nearly 30 per cent on-year and surpassed the total annual import volume of 2015,” said Lee Hyuk, Korean Ambassador to Vietnam.

Regarding investment, Korea is currently the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with 5,273 valid projects altogether worth almost $50 billion.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung told the press that Korea is the second largest investor in Hanoi, with a total of 1,175 projects and $5.033 billion capital.

In terms of tourism, Chung affirmed that the number of Korean tourists to the city this year reached 316,285, rank as the second largest source of international visitors. It also accounted for 23.4 per cent of all Korean visitors to the country.

However, the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) estimated that over 90 per cent of Korean exports to Vietnam are raw materials and intermediate goods, while imports are largely limited to agricultural and seafood as well as textile products.

“The Korean Expo 2016, therefore, plays an important role in connecting Korean and Vietnamese businesses, helping the two countries achieve their pledge of $70 billion in bilateral trade volume by 2020,” said Lee Hyuk.

Seeing how the local market is very promising for Korean businesses, Young Soo Kim, president and CEO of Green Zone Co., Ltd., excitedly told VIR, “The exhibition has only started a few minutes ago but four potential partners already came to us. They expressed serious willingness in importing and distributing our cosmetic products in Vietnam. It is going to be a successful exhibition.”