Roughly 570 businesspeople from South Korea will arrive in Vietnam today [July 22] as the two countries make efforts to facilitate economic activities in the face of economic slowdown in the Southeast Asian country.

South Korean experts arrive in Vietnam. Photo: Bsr.com.vn

The businessmen will come to Vietnam on chartered airplanes, Yonhap News Agency cited the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE).

MOTIE said a group of more than 1,500 people will also be sent to Vietnam throughout August.

According to MOTIE, Vietnam was South Korea’s third largest export destination in 2019. Meanwhile, statistics by Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that South Korea was Vietnam's biggest investor in the same year with US$7.92 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI), accounting for 20.8% of the Southeast Asian country’s FDI in 2019.

Big South Korean corporations namely Samsung, LG, Shinhan Financial Group, Lotte, KB Financial Group (KBFG), KEB Hana Bank, CJ, among others, have been operating in Vietnam for decades.

As the pandemic has virtually suspended global air traffic, Vietnam since March 22 has closed borders to all foreign visitors, except for foreign diplomats, experts, business executives, high-skilled workers, and some of special cases.

Given initial success in containing the novel coronavirus, Vietnam has resumed the economy with some relaxation on movement restrictions but the country still demands safety requirements for foreign visitors.

In the context that the number of South Koreans coming to Vietnam is on the rise, South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Park Noh Wan has suggested that Vietnam should be more flexible in quarantine duration for South Korean businesspeople and experts.

Echoing the ambassador, representatives of the Korean Chamber of Business (KorCham) said the government of Vietnam should adopt quarantine regulations with greater flexibility.

Ambassador Park Noh Wan said there have been 4,300 South Korean experts and businesspeople entering Vietnam recently, and the figure is poised to increase in the coming time.

Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung told VnExpress on July 21 that the Vietnamese government is pursuing its dual mission in which both developing economy and ensuring safety for the people are together carried out.

For that reason, the government has imposed flexible quarantine measures for foreign experts and businessmen, including South Korean nationals.

Accordingly, the quarantine is still 14 days as required before but in different locations like hotels, lodging facilities, their offices, among others, the minister said.

Earlier in mid-March, South Korean engineers arriving in Vietnam to work for Samsung Display underwent no concentrated quarantine but in a separate building near their factory. They were also required to make medical declaration before entering Vietnam and spend 14 days of quarantine, according to VnExpress.