RoK footwear firms to increase investment in Vietnam

Hanoi, July 13 (VNA) – Footwear enterprises from the Republic of Korea (RoK) are operating effectively in Vietnam and their investment flows to the country are expected to increase strongly once the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is signed. According to Lee Young Man, President of the Korean footwear association in Vietnam, more than 100 Korean businesses are operating in the field in Vietnam, with nearly 80 percent of them active in the southern province of Binh Duong. The Korean footwear association in Vietnam has organised activities to enable businesses to exchange experience in order to increase competitiveness, he said. At present, the association has 90 members and most of them are performing well. It aims to develop the membership to 120 this year. According to the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO), Vietnam exported around 14.67 billion USD worth of footwear last year, ranking second in the world. In the first four months of this year, the industry’s exports were worth 4.5 billion USD, and the full-year target is 20 billion USD. The RoK is the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 6,760 valid projects which have total registered capital of more than 59 billion USD. Trade between Vietnam and the RoK reached 61.5 billion USD in 2017, up 41 percent year on year, including Vietnam’s exports of 14.8 billion USD, a rise of 30 percent over 2016.-VNA