Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Speaker of the Republic of Korea’s National Assembly Moon Hee-sang have pledged to facilitate trade and investment cooperation between the two countries as they attended the Vietnam-RoK trade and investment forum in Seoul.

Delegates at the forum

The event on December 7 was jointly held by Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, the RoK Embassy in Vietnam, and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Speaker Moon Hee-sang highlighted the fact that Vietnam is a leading cooperation partner of the RoK in numerous fields. The bilateral relations have seen remarkable strides across all aspects, from politics, economy, and culture to development cooperation, labour, and people-to-people exchanges.

In particular, Vietnam is a top partner in the New Southern Policy of the RoK’s Government, he stressed.

The Speaker called on Vietnamese and Korean businesses to promote their partnership to contribute to the prosperity in the two countries and the Asian region as a whole.

He noted that about half of the RoK businesses investing in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are operating in Vietnam.

For her part, Chairwoman Ngan said after more than 30 years of reforms, Vietnam has become an average income country in 2018 with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 240 billion USD and total trade value of 475 billion USD.

The middle class in Vietnam is expanding, which is expected to make up about 50 percent of the population by 2030. This will make Vietnam an attractive consumer market and help provide high quality labour for the economy.

The investment environment in Vietnam has been constantly improved with competitive investment costs and improved transport infrastructure, Ngan said.

She added that Vietnam is a responsible member of 10 valid free trade agreements (FTA). The National Assembly of Vietnam has ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which will come into force in early 2019. The NA will soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in the coming time. The FTAs will broaden Vietnam’s free trade relations and allow it to enjoy high preferential treatment from large markets of nearly 40 developed countries. 

Vietnam aims to achieve an annual average economic growth of 6.5 – 7 percent through 2020, a GDP of 320 – 350 billion USD, and trade size of about 600 billion USD, striving to turn itself into an advanced industrial country, she added.

The top legislator said RoK firms are playing an important role in several key economic fields of Vietnam, such as electronics, energy, automobile, garment-textile and construction. 

Currently, the RoK is the biggest FDI partner of Vietnam, contributing significantly to the shift of economic structure, job generation, trade balance, and promotion of social welfares in Vietnam. RoK businesses are economic diplomats who contribute to developing the two nations’ cooperation in a pragmatic and effective manner, Ngan noted.

The trade scale of the two countries has also increased steadily, especially after the FTA between Vietnam and the RoK took effect. Trade growth increased by nearly 130 times to reach 64 billion USD in 2017.

On the occasion of the official visit to the RoK of the Vietnamese NA high-level delegation, the two countries on December 6 signed a memorandum of understanding on an action programme to increase two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2020 towards balanced trade. 

The top legislator said Vietnam is stepping up activities to encourage investment from the RoK and is willing to import commodities and spare parts that are strengths of the East Asian country.

At the same time, Vietnam hopes the RoK will continue creating more favourable conditions for Vietnam’s exports of tropical agricultural products, garment-textile, timber products, rubber, and electronics.

“We are committed to building a friendly business environment for businesses according to international standards, “ Ngan said. 

The National Assembly of Vietnam will timely revise, supplement and build appropriate policies and work with the Government to create the optimal conditions for foreign investors in general and RoK businesses in particular to operate successfully in Vietnam.

“We hope the two countries’ business community will optimise their advantages and become nuclear in economic connectivity and cooperation, contributing to deepening the sound friendship between Vietnam and the RoK”, Ngan said.

At the forum, businesses from the two countries discussed cooperation opportunities in the areas of trade-services, agriculture-food processing, manufacturing industry, construction, infrastructure and finance.

On the occasion, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Speaker Moon Hee-sang witnessed the commercial launch of an air route connecting Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island and the RoK’s Seoul capital operated by the budget carrier Vietjet Air.

VN pledges favourable environment for Korean investors: NA Chairwoman 

 Viet Nam pledged to develop effective policies and create the most favourable environment for foreign investors, in general, and those from the Repulic of Korea (RoK), in particular, to successfully do business in Viet Nam, National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said.

Ngan stressed this while speaking at the Viet Nam – RoK Trade and Investment conference in Seoul on Friday – the final day of the Vietnamese legislator’s four-day official visit to the RoK.

The conference, co-organised by the Viet Nam Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Vietnamese Embassy to RoK and the Korea Chamber of Commerce, was also attended by the Speaker of the RoK National Assembly Moon Hee-sang together with hundreds of firms from the two countries.

Ngan urged businesses to bring into play advantages in the co-operation between Viet Nam and the RoK and contribute to deepening the relationship between the two countries.

“Our doors are always open to Korean firms to do business in Viet Nam. Your success is our success,” Ngan said.

“Viet Nam is committed to building a business-friendly environment following international standards,” Ngan said, adding that the country’s ecomic restructuring was focusing on three pillars - public investment, State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and credit institutions -together with three strategic breakthroughs in the development of the market economy, high-quality human resources and infrastructures to create room for private and foreign companies to enhance cooperation for development.

The investment climate in Viet Nam was improving and becoming attractive to foreign investors as the country was now a member of 10 free trade agreements together with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the European Union – Viet Nam FTA that take effect soon, she said.

The country was also striving to enhance national competitiveness in the global value chain and promote links between the private and FDI sectors.

Ngan said Viet Nam was considering policies to attract foreign investment in processing and manufacturing, parts supplies, new materials, agriculture-food processing, IT, energy, infrastructure development, the environment, smart cities, healthcare, high-quality services and the privatisation of SOEs.

Ngan appreciated the RoK government’s New Southern Policy aimed at promoting peace and common prosperity.

RoK is now the largest investor in Viet Nam with total registered capital of US$62.2 billion, according to statistics from the Viet Nam Foreign Investment Agency.

With regards to trade, Ngan said that Viet Nam expected the RoK to continue to create conditions for the entry and export expansion of Vietnamese products such as farm produce, garments, wood and electronics products, adding that Viet Nam was willing to import products including electronic components and parts.

This is an effort to boost bilateral trade between Viet Nam and RoK to $100 billion by 2020. A memorandum of understanding on action plan to leverage bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2020 was signed between the Viet Nam Ministry of Industry and Trade and RoK Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Seoul on Thursday.

“Viet Nam and the RoK are significant trade partners with export products rarely conflicting,” Ngan said.

Two-way trade reached $64 billion last year.

Speaker Moon Hee-sang said that he expected both Vietnamese and Korean firms to actively promote economic co-operation to contribute to the prosperous development of the two countries in particular and Asia in general.

He said that RoK would create favourable conditions for the operation of firms from the two countries.

He stressed that Viet Nam was the leading partner of RoK in many sectors, adding that half of Korean firms investing in ASEAN were operating in Viet Nam.

At the conference, Korean firms showed interest in the privatisation of Vietnamese SOEs via mergers and acquisitions, renewable energy, the environment, infrastructure, finance and banking.

After the conference, Ngan received representatives of several Korean economic groups, including CJ, Lotte, VN One and the Korea Federation of SMEs. Ngan said she expected Korean firms to continue to expand their investment in Viet Nam, especially in smart cities, tourism, transport infrastructure development, logistics and education services.

Korean firms said they wished to invest long-term in Viet Nam, and expand production and operations to contribute to the development of Viet Nam.

During the forum, Vietjet also announced that the airline would launch its new international route connecting Phu Quoc island in southern Kien Giang Province with Seoul later this month. 

VNA