With the figure, the South Korea topped the list of 82 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the period, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
For example, LG Innotek proposed adding 501 million USD to its camera module production project at Trang Due industrial park in the northern port city of Hai Phong, raising the total registered capital to 1.05 billion USD.
Meanwhile, Kefico Vietnam Co. Ltd. registered to raise capital by 120 million USD for its project in the northern province of Hai Duong, which specializes in manufacturing components and accessories for motored vehicles.
Recently, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) has revealed its plan to move its main headquarters in Southeast Asia from Singapore to Hanoi to support Korean firms doing business in the fast growing market.
KOTRA said the decision was made in consideration of the growing number of Korean companies that are based in Vietnam or that plan to invest in the Southeast Asian nation.
According to KOTRA, bilateral trade between Vietnam and the South Korea reached 63.9 billion USD in 2017. Vietnam is now the fourth largest trading partner of the South Korea while the country is Vietnam's second-largest.
The agency also plans to open new business centres in Ahmedabad, an industrial city in western India, and in Da Nang, a commercial hub in Vietnam’s central region.
KOTRA will expand business centres in the promising markets to keep up with the changing trade environment, said CEO Kwon Pyung-oh.
At a recent meeting between Vietnamese and Korean businesses in Hanoi, many South Korea firms highly evaluated Vietnam’s investment environment and investment incentives.
Gunjae Kim, chairman of the South Korea’s Hwasung veterinary medicine company, said a lot of South Korea firms operating in various fields have made inroads into Vietnam. He hailed Vietnam’s investment attraction policies with improvements in the business climate.
At present, Hwasung has not planned to open a manufacturing factory in Vietnam, but it wants to seek trade opportunities and promote import-export activities with Vietnamese businesses, he said.
