Vietnam and South Korea expect to reach $100 billion trade turnover in 2023

Vietnam and South Korea will double down on trade and investment cooperation in the next decade

In the framework of the meeting between South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo Kyum and Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, the two parties agreed to boost the bilateral relationship.

Accordingly, the two parties will double down on investment promotion activities to lure in more investment from South Korea and support South Korean enterprises in Vietnam to increase their export turnover toward their homeland.

In addition, the two parties will support local firms to increase exports of garment and textile, wood, and processed food, among others to South Korea. Enterprises will push to transfer technology to boost local businesses' competitive capacity, especially in the automotive industry, textile and garment, as well as chemicals and components, and then promote these partners' export turnover to South Korea and other countries.

“Vietnam is eager to reopen international flights and Seoul will be one of the important destinations in this pilot programme. The government is cooperating with other countries, including Korea to promote the application of vaccine passports to reconnect trading and investment activities for the two countries’ enterprises,” Hue said.

Besides, Vuong Dinh Hue had occasion to work with leaders of groups namely SK, Samsung Electronics, Lotte Shopping, and Lotte Mart, among others and they all committed to invest long-term in Vietnam in the sectors of energy, semiconductors, and high-tech industry. At the same time, Korean groups also want to support domestic enterprises to join the global supply chain.

Bilateral export-import turnover has seen consecutive increases after the Korea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement came into effect in late 2015.

In the first 10 months of this year, the bilateral trade turnover was $63.4 billion. The figure is expected to increase to $70 billion for the whole year.