Overseas entrepreneurs from South Korea eye opportunities in Vietnam

Over 60 businesses from South Korea attended the forum

New South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Do Hyun, chairman of Young Business Leaders Network Kim Han Shin (YBLN), and Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang attended the forum.

Ambassador Kim Do Hyun has just started his tenure in Vietnam on May 6. The forum is the first large foreign affairs events he attends after arriving to Vietnam. He has been the director of the international relations department and international markets development department of Samsung Group before being appointed as South Korean Ambassador.

YBLN Hanoi Forum 2018 is being held on May 6-10, 2018 in Hanoi, offering market research activities, business workshops, site visits to surrounding areas of the capitol and Danang city.

After 30 years of renovation, international integration, and maintaining high growth rates, Vietnam has become a middle-income country with nearly $230 billion of GDP and a golden population structure. Striving for openness, Vietnam has joined 11 FTAs with the total trade turnover of over $420 billion.

As a result, Vietnam has been the most attractive investment destination in the ASEAN, luring in over $320 billion of FDI capital from 126 countries. The investment climate has been improving, costs are falling, and more and more preferential investment policies are issued.

“A developed and integrated Vietnamese market is an opportunity and motivation for South Korean businesses to evolve co-operation and investment activities. We will join at deeper levels and reach higher in the global value chains. Vietnam commits to facilitate a transparent and favourable business climate, as well as create a fair playing field in all economic sectors, including South Korea businesses,” emphasised Deputy Minister Vu Dai Thang at the YBLN Hanoi Forum.

Established in 2002, YBLN gathers young leaders from the leading South Korean businesses operating overseas. These businesses have been developing over the years and are creating a global economic network with South Korea at its centre. Earlier, this forum has been held in Singapore in 2011, Jakarta in 2013, Frankfurt in 2015, Sydney in 2016, and New York in 2017.

South Korea is Vietnam’s largest FDI partner with nearly $60 billion of registered capital, the second biggest partner in bilateral development and tourism, and third largest trade partner. South Koreans make the most populous foreign community in Vietnam.

In last March, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang promised to further elevate the strategic cooperative partnership. As part of this process, two-way trade turnover will be raised to $100 billion by 2020 from the $64 billion in 2017.

Source: VIR