Son was speaking at a seminar on supporting Vietnamese firms to capitalize on the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) held on October 17 in Hanoi.
According to experts at the seminar, Vietnamese and Korean markets are capable of complementing each other's commercial strengths. All goods that the two countries committed to reduce tariffs under the VKFTA have had good growth rates since the agreement took effect three years ago.
However, they said, the VKFTA has been in effect for three years, however, Vietnamese enterprises have so far still not fully utilized the benefits of the agreement while Korean businesses have done very well. Therefore, Vietnam's import growth rate tends to be higher than the growth rate of Vietnam's exports to the Republic of Korea (RoK).
According to the experts, Vietnamese enterprises need to be more flexible in finding export items. Instead of paying attention only to seafood as previously, they should focus on export products which enjoy high tax incentives from RoK such as wood, rubber, fruits and vegetables, textiles, footwear, textiles, garment and footwear.
Park Chul Ho, CEO of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), recommended when applying the FTA, Vietnamese firms need to pay careful attention to research and preparation of paperwork such as certificates of origin (C/O). Good awareness of the FTA is very important.
"The Ministry of Industry and Trade is always ready to support domestic firms through trade links, market information and procedure consultancy, helping them find opportunities for trade and investment cooperation," Son stressed.
Tran Kim Oanh, Director of the Center for Investment and Industry Development, also said that Samsung and LG are two big companies investing in Vietnam. Every year, 500-600 Korean companies come to Vietnam to supply components for Samsung and LG. However, she noted, it is not because of the reason that the two companies only want to do business with their Korean counterparts but they have failed to find Vietnamese enterprises to meet their demands.
"We have in our hands the list of 60 components that Samsung Group wants to find suppliers, especially domestic ones. This is an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to take advantage," Oanh said. At the seminar, Son also shared after three years the VKFTA took effect, economic cooperation between Vietnam and RoK has achieved good results.
Bilateral trade turnover of the two countries has increased nearly 87 times for the past 20 years to $45.09 billion by the end of September this year. RoK has overtaken China to become Vietnam's largest import market.
Currently, RoK is Vietnam's third largest trading partner while Vietnam is RoK's fourth largest trading partner.
As for investment, since November 2014, RoK has overtaken Japan to become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam and has maintained its position with 6,324 projects worth $55.8 billion of total registered capital until September 20, 2017.
Vietnam’s key import staples from RoK are machinery and equipment, computers, electronic products and components, textiles and footwear accessories and materials, steel, plastics, chemicals, vehicles and petrol.
In the opposite direction, Vietnam exports mainly textiles and garments, telephones and components, seafood, wood products, machinery, equipments, footwear, transport equipment and spare parts, and fibers to RoK.