HCM City helping RoK businesses to tackle difficulties

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) - The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, in collaborationwith the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea (RoK), for the first timeorganised a dialogue between city leaders and RoK enterprises on March 25 tohelp them deal with difficulties in investment and business.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong told thedialogue that since diplomatic ties were set up in 1992, Vietnam and the RoK haveseen rapid development in bilateral relations, becoming strategic cooperativepartners in 2009.

Economic cooperation has always been an important pillar in the bilateralrelations, and the RoK has been a key economic partner of Vietnam for many years.

As of the end of 2020, the RoK had over 8,900 valid investment projects inVietnam totalling 70.65 billion USD, ranking it first among 139 countries andterritories investing in the country, in terms of both capital and projectnumbers.

Last year, the RoK was Vietnam’s third-largest trading partner, withtwo-way trade hitting 66 billion USD.

For HCM City, the RoK was the fifth-largest export market and third-largestimport market, with turnover reaching 1.8 billion USD and 2.8 billion USD,respectively.

In the first two months of 2021, the city and the RoK saw two-way exportand import value of 366 million USD and 701 million USD, up 30.3 percent and47.3 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Addressing the dialogue via videoconference from Hanoi, RoK Ambassadorto Vietnam Park Noh-wan said his country’s enterprises always pay attention toand hope to participate in large-scale infrastructure projects, such as thecity’s smart city planning and the Long Thanh International Airport project.

Kim Heung Soo, President of the Korean Business Association in Vietnam,proposed simplifying and improving administrative procedures related to foreigninvestment.

Simplifying administrative procedures can help reduce time and costs forbusinesses, thus contributing to directly increasing business competitiveness,improving the city’s business and investment environment and attracting moreforeign investment, Kim said.

Phong requested local departments and sectors collect ideas andrecommendations from RoK for submission to higher levels for settlement./.

VNA