Participants pose for a group photo at the conference (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The eighth internationaleconomic and financial conference of Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK)took place in Hanoi on March 22.
The event was jointly held by the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in coordination with Vietnam's Ministryof Finance, the RoK’s Financial Services Commission, and EDaily magazine.
Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha said thecooperation between Vietnam and the RoK has deepened in various fields afterover 25 years of establishing diplomatic ties, particularly in economics andfinance.
He noted that in 2018, two-way trade reached65.7 billion USD.
The RoK is now the biggest foreign investor inVietnam. In the past five years, the RoK’s annual registered foreign directinvestment (FDI) has always been at around 7-9 billion USD.
The RoK is also one of Vietnam’s biggest bilateraldonors with many loans through the Korea Economic Development Cooperation Fund(EDCF). So far, the RoK Government has signed 55 credit agreements with Vietnamworth a total 2 billion USD.
More than 6,600 RoK investors have joined theVietnamese stock market and six RoK-invested securities companies are active inVietnam. RoK insurance firms are also operating effectively in Vietnam.
The Deputy Minister gave a brief overview on theeconomic situation in Vietnam, highlighting an impressive growth of over 7percent in 2018.
Last year, Moody and Fitch credit ratingsorganisations upgraded their outlook on Vietnamese Government bonds to stable,he said.
Vietnam is an ideal destination for majortrans-national groups, including those from the RoK such as Samsung, LG andLotte, he added.
The Southeast Asian country has attracted morethan 27,000 FDI projects with total registered capital of over 335 billion USDover the past 30 years. The total FDI disbursement was 185 billion USD.
In the coming time, the Vietnamese Governmentwill push ahead with institutional reforms while maintaining macro-economicstability, curbing inflation, and ensuring major balances of the economy, hesaid.
“We will continue restructuring the economy,especially public investment, State enterprises, in addition to improving thebusiness environment and promoting economic growth in a rapid and sustainablemanner,” the deputy minister affirmed.
While evaluating the cooperation potential ofthe two countries, chairman of EDaily Kwak Jea-sun said Vietnam is the mostimportant partner of the RoK in the ASEAN in terms of promoting new investmentpolicies in all arenas such as education and human resource exchanges.
He noted that in 2018, the two countriesexchanged 3.3 million workers and Korean companies have been continuouslyexpanding investment in Vietnam.
Commercial transactions between the two sideshave been promoted, he said, adding that Vietnam is the third biggest exportpartner of the RoK, after China and the US.-VNA
VNA
