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

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

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

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

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

He noted that about half of the RoK businessesinvesting in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are operatingin Vietnam.

For her part, Chairwoman Ngan said after morethan 30 years of reforms, Vietnam has become an average income country in 2018with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 240 billion USD and total trade value of475 billion USD.

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

The investment environment in Vietnam has beenconstantly improved with competitive investment costs and improved transportinfrastructure, Ngan said.

She added that Vietnam is a responsible memberof 10 valid free trade agreements (FTA). The National Assembly of Vietnam hasratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP) which will come into force in early 2019. The NA will soonratify the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) in the coming time. The FTAswill broaden Vietnam’s free trade relations and allow it to enjoy highpreferential treatment from large markets of nearly 40 developed countries.

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

The top legislator said RoK firms are playing animportant 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 ofVietnam, contributing significantly to the shift of economic structure, jobgeneration, trade balance, and promotion of social welfares in Vietnam. RoKbusinesses 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 alsoincreased steadily, especially after the FTA between Vietnam and the RoK tookeffect. Trade growth increased by nearly 130 times to reach 64 billion USD in2017.

On the occasion of the official visit to the RoKof the Vietnamese NA high-level delegation, the two countries on December 6 signeda memorandum of understanding on an action programme to increase two-way tradeto 100 billion USD by 2020 towards balanced trade.
 
The top legislator said Vietnam is stepping upactivities to encourage investment from the RoK and is willing to importcommodities and spare parts that are strengths of the East Asian country.

At the same time, Vietnam hopes the RoK will continuecreating more favourable conditions for Vietnam’s exports of tropicalagricultural products, garment-textile, timber products, rubber, andelectronics.

“We are committed to building a friendlybusiness environment for businesses according to international standards, “Ngan said.
The NationalAssembly of Vietnam will timely revise, supplement and build appropriatepolicies and work with the Government to create the optimal conditions forforeign investors in general and RoK businesses in particular to operatesuccessfully in Vietnam.

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

At the forum, businesses from the two countries discussedcooperation opportunities in the areas of trade-services, agriculture-foodprocessing, manufacturing industry, construction, infrastructure and finance.

On the occasion, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi KimNgan and Speaker Moon Hee-sang witnessed the commercial launch of an air routeconnecting Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island and the RoK’s Seoul capital operated bythe budget carrier Vietjet Air.-VNA