Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said record-sized export contracts were signed at the "Korea-Vietnam business partnership" event held to coincide with President Lee Jae-myung's state visit to Vietnam.
KOTRA said on the 23rd (local time) that a total of 24 export contracts worth $82.09 million (about 123 billion won) were concluded at the partnership event held at the Vietnam National Convention Center in Hanoi. This is the largest result since the business partnership events began in 2015. One hundred Korean small and midsize companies participated in the event.
By value, Korean wave consumer goods accounted for more than 90%, driving the results. Company A, a Korean producer of dairy products such as powdered milk, signed a $35 million (about 5.2 billion won) export contract with a Vietnamese distributor. Company B, which produces health functional foods, signed export contracts totaling $14.02 million (about 2.1 billion won) with three Vietnamese buyers. In addition, export contracts were signed across a range of items including processed foods, cosmetics, bathroom ceiling materials, medical beds, and construction machinery.
Trade between Korea and Vietnam reached $94.5 billion (about 140 trillion won) last year. Along with China and the United States, Vietnam has remained one of Korea's top three trading partners for four consecutive years. The number of Korean corporations operating in Vietnam has surpassed 10,000, and economic cooperation between the two countries is growing stronger. According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) of Vietnam, as of the end of March this year, Korea's cumulative investment in Vietnam stood at $98.9 billion, making Korea the No. 1 investor in Vietnam.
On the day, KOTRA also held a "K-lifestyle showcase" alongside the export consultation event. The event was prepared to diversify market entry models for Korean wave consumer-goods companies into Vietnam. The showcase consisted of three themes: ▲ domestic major distribution network win-win cooperation zone ▲ specialized trading company win-win cooperation zone ▲ local major distribution network zone.
In the win-win cooperation zone, major Korean distributors such as Lotte Homeshopping and Shinsegae and specialized trading companies exhibited products with 26 partnering small and midsize companies and explored joint entry into the local market. In particular, a live commerce session hosted by Lotte Homeshopping with influencers drew as many as 52,000 online viewers.
At the obstacle-to-entry help desk, participating Korean companies had access to a help desk for direct consultations with experts in each field, including the use of free trade agreements (FTAs), certifications, and settlement of trade payments. In particular, a trade payment card settlement platform developed by KOTRA with private corporations such as VISA allows credit card payments of up to $1.5 million per transaction and provides repayment periods of up to 50 days, reportedly drawing interest from businesspeople of both countries.
Kang Kyung-sung, president of KOTRA, said, "As our companies face difficulties due to uncertainty in the Middle East, it is significant that we achieved record results at an economic cooperation event with Vietnam, one of the top three trading partners," adding, "We will do our best to support Korean small and midsize companies so they can further expand into Vietnam, which serves as a global production base and an attractive high-growth consumer market."