Businesses at the event. — Photo courtesy of KOTRA Hanoi

HÀ NỘI — Ninety direct meetings were organised between businesses from South Korea's Daegu City and Gyeongbuk Province and Vietnamese enterprises in a trade promotion event facilitated by the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA Hanoi) this week.

The event featured nine businesses from Daegu City and six from Gyeongbuk Province, showcasing a diverse range of products such as cosmetics, food, dietary supplements, beverages, household goods, and LED electrical equipment. During the event, 45 Vietnamese businesses found suitable Korean partners.

Lee Jun Dae, Director of H&H Group in Korea, said: "The Việt Nam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has created favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to take advantage of the best tax benefits. H&H products, such as food and cosmetics, enjoy reduced import taxes into Việt Nam, ranging from 1-2 per cent, compared to the usual 20 per cent tax. This presents a great opportunity for Korean products to easily penetrate the Vietnamese market."

Park Jong Won, Director of Bathproject Company in Korea, expressed joy in directly engaging with potential Vietnamese importers. He shared: "We believe today's working session of Bathproject has yielded good results and many opportunities for future collaboration through business negotiations."

Hoàng Thị Thanh Hương, CEO of HH&C Electrical and Trading Services Joint Stock Company, highly praised the quality of Korean products introduced at the event. In addition, she emphasised that the favourable import tax conditions from the Việt Nam-Korea FTA and convenient transportation are crucial factors for Vietnamese businesses to enhance imports from Korea.

Park Min Sul, Director of the Korea FTA Centre under KOTRA Hanoi, said: "Currently, there are three trade agreements involving Việt Nam and Korea including ASEAN-Korea FTA, Vietnam-Korea FTA, and RCEP, with VK FTA having more preferential terms and being widely utilised by many businesses. For example, the regular tax rate for cosmetic products is 20 per cent, but the current preferential rate is 1-2 per cent."

In 2015, the trade volume between Korea and Vietnam reached US$36 billion. This figure more than doubled to $86 billion in 2022, thanks to the benefits of the Việt Nam-Korea FTA. KOTRA is intensifying trade promotion activities in 2023 to achieve a bilateral trade volume of $100 billion soon, according to KOTRA representatives. — VNS