Vietnam, RoK target US$100 billion in bilateral trade by 2023

The RoK represents the nation’s third largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching VND66 billion, or 12.85% of the country’s total trade turnover with the world.Furthermore, the RoK currently makes up the fourth biggest Vietnamese export market, with export revenue close to US$19.1 billion.

The Northeast Asian nation is also an important export market and holds huge potential for fresh local and processed fruits, with an annual market capacity of approximately US$1.3 billion. To date, five types of Vietnamese fruits have been officially shipped to the this market.

There remains ample room for the nation’s fruits to enter the RoK, according to firms and consumers in the market. Due to this factor, Vietnamese businesses have been advised to pay closer attention to improving product quality, packaging, processing method, production scale, and stability of supply. 

According to Kyung Don Kim, head of the Investment Promotion Team at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Hanoi, trade turnover between the two nations is on the rise despite the complex developments relating to COVID-19. Businesses from the RoK are therefore keen to invest further in the country moving forward.Moreover RoK remains the largest foreign investor into the Vietnamese market, with a total of 9,165 projects mainly in the manufacturing sector.

Roughly 79% of Korean firms are investing in industrial production, namely Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motors, among others.As a result, Vietnam is a key partner in the RoK’s enhanced New Southern Policy. Moving forward, the Agency of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will join hands with competent agencies from both nations to call on the RoK to open its door to other local fruits, as well as increasing trade promotional activities in the near future.

Since the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, the RoK business community based in Vietnam has been working with the local side to overcome difficulties caused by the pandemic, said Vu Ba Phu, director of the ministry's Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien went on to confirm that there is plenty of room for growth in terms of economic-trade co-operation between both sides thanks to various factors, especially their active engagement in free trade agreements and strong connection in the global value chain. The Ministry will continue striving to boost close collaboration and maximise the efficiency of bilateral co-operation mechanisms in carrying out tasks and plans of action in order to meet the two-way trade target of US$100 billion by 2023.