HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam hopes that South Korean investors will participate more deeply in the equitisation process of Vietnamese enterprises.

The statement was made by Hà Huy Tuấn, vice chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, at the 8th International Conference on Finance and Economics, co-organised in Hà Nội on March 21-22 by the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Việt Nam’s Ministry of Finance (MOF), The South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and South Korea’s magazine EDAILY.

“We really hope that Korean investors will grasp co-operation opportunities by participating in the equitisation process of Vietnamese enterprises, especially the restructure of the banking sector and the application of fintech (financial technology),” Tuấn said.

"The application of fintech to build a comprehensive public finance management system in Việt Nam has great potential because the country has a young population, good internet infrastructure and a rapidly-expanding middle class," Tuấn said.

According to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) Nguyễn Kim Anh, South Korea is one of the countries with the most number of banks in the Vietnamese market with two foreign-invested banks, eight foreign-invested bank branches, six representative offices and two financial leasing companies.

“Co-operation between the two countries in banking and finance is not only within the scope of investment co-operation but also in the exchange and mutual support in professional skills and strengthening the capacity of officials between the two sides,” Kim Anh said.

“This conference will be a valuable opportunity for management agencies and enterprises of the two countries to contact and learn to exploit the potential of fintech development in the dynamic financial and banking market of both South Korea and Việt Nam,” Kim Anh said.

South Korean ambassador to Việt Nam Kim Do Hyon said the bilateral co-operation between Việt Nam and Korea appeared to be an ideal, highly reliable relationship with many cultural and historical similarities.

The successful organisation of the second DPRK-USA summit showed that Việt Nam had an important role in promoting co-operation between South and North Korea.

The trade war between the US and China remained a big concern and the flow of investment was shifting to Việt Nam. Therefore, Việt Nam needed flexible and proactive financial and economic policies to seize these opportunities, Kim Do Hyon said.

He hoped that Việt Nam would continue to support and create favourable conditions for foreign financial institutions to invest in the country, and promote areas such as merger and acquisition of enterprises, fintech, infrastructure investment projects and industrial projects, thereby contributing to improving people’s lives and economic development.

Deputy Minister of Finance Trần Xuân Hà said over the past 25 years, Việt Nam-Korea relations and the economic ties between the two sides have flourished.

Regarding trade, Hà said South Korea was the second largest trade partner of Việt Nam and Việt Nam was South Korea’s fourth largest trade partner. In 2018, bilateral trade reached US$65.7 billion, of which Việt Nam’s exports to South Korea reached $18.2 billion, up 22.8 per cent and Việt Nam’s imports from South Korea reached $47.5 billion, up more than one per cent compared to 2017.

In terms of investment, South Korea was the largest foreign investor in Việt Nam. In the last five years, the annual registered foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea remained at $7 to $9 billion, Hà said.

Deputy Minister Hà said that there were more than 6,600 Korean investors participating in the Vietnamese stock market and six Korean-invested securities companies. Korea was also the leading country in investing in Việt Nam’s stock market.

In the field of insurance, many Korean companies such as Hanwha Life, Mirae, Samsung Vina and Seoul Guarantee were operating effectively, contributing to promoting the development of the Vietnamese insurance market, he said.

“Việt Nam is an ideal destination for many large transnational corporations, including Korean corporations such as Samsung, LG, and Lotte. The Government of Việt Nam will continue to focus on institutional reforms, macroeconomic stability and inflation control. We will continue to restructure the economy, especially restructuring public investment and state-owned enterprises, improving the business environment, promoting rapid and sustainable economic growth, and actively promote international integration with a focus on economic integration," Hà said. — VNS