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Jun 21, 2018 / 11:33

Vietnam named among top importers of South Korea

A newly-released report listed Vietnam as one of the five biggest buyers of South Korea.

Specifically, Vietnam along with China, Hong Kong (China), Japan and the US is on the list of the five biggest importers from South Korea, accounting for about 56.5% of the country’s total export, found a report by the Institute for International Trade under the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), released on June 20.
Illustrative photo. Source: stratsisincite.wordpress.com
Illustrative photo. Source: stratsisincite.wordpress.com

Meanwhile, the ten biggest importers of South Korea, including the five above plus Australia, India, Taiwan (China), Singapore and Mexico made up for  69,2% of the total.
Among those, South Korea's exports to the US and Japan declined while that to China climbed strongly, resulting in increasing total export to major countries. South Korea came second, following Hong Kong in the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) that measures the concentration of exports to big powers, while countries of large export scale including Germany, China and the US had this index in modest rankings, said the report. 
During the visit of South Korean President Moon Jae-in to Vietnam in March, the two countries' leaders agreed to boost  bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2020, or 50% more than last year’s total.
Trade between Vietnam and South Korea has risen rapidly since a free trade agreement between the two took effect in December 2015.
Vietnam exports mainly garments, cellphones and seafood to South Korea, while its key imports include electronic components, machinery, fabrics and plastics.