Expecting large Korean enterprises to invest billions of dollars in Vietnam

Dozens of projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars await investment.

Towards 30 years of new relations and the future strategy of Vietnam - Korea industrial cooperation, the Vietnam - Korea Business Forum 2023 took place on the afternoon of June 23.

The forum is organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam; Ministry of Industry and Trade of Korea; Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

With about 500 participating businesses, the forum featured the presence of leading economic groups from Korea and Vietnam such as: Samsung Electronics Group, Doosan Enerbility Group, Vinfast Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Shinhan Bank...

Notable information was provided by Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment), that in the coming time, Korean investors will invest billions of USD in Vietnam.

“We have a list of dozens of pending projects, some worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but also billions of dollars. We will soon have new information about these projects,” said Mr. Hoang.

Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment) spoke at the forum. (Photo: N.Le)

According to this Director, in recent years, Korean investment in Vietnam has always had a breakthrough. Currently, Korea is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of about 82 billion USD.

“Last year, South Korea invested nearly 5 billion USD in Vietnam, but in the first 5 months of 2023, it was only more than 666 million USD. However, this number does not reflect the true state of Korean investment. Korean businesses are still strongly focusing on Vietnam,” Mr. Hoang emphasized.

In order to facilitate foreign investors in general and Korean investors in particular in Vietnam, Mr. Hoang said that in recent times, Vietnam has made great efforts to improve the investment and business environment. Currently, it continues to reform administrative procedures, especially the implementation of procedures after granting investment registration certificates such as land, construction, fire prevention and fighting, environment, customs, etc.

In particular, there are policies to promote investment attraction in a number of areas such as high technology, semiconductors, and innovation. As well as issuing policies to effectively and flexibly adapt to the impact of global minimum taxes.

Korean giant mentions wind power, green growth

Samsung Vietnam General Director Choi Joo Ho said that Samsung's business philosophy is "mutual development", supporting Vietnamese enterprises to increase their competitiveness in the global supply chain.

Accordingly, Samsung has shared manufacturing skills with Vietnamese enterprises at the request of the Government; shared experiences in building smart factories to improve competitiveness in the local manufacturing industry.

Samsung leaders suggested that Vietnam needs to train business leaders. Accompanying this activity, in March 2018, Samsung signed an agreement with Vietnam to include a training program for consultants.

In 2022, supported the recruitment of human resources to build smart factories in Vietnam. The core of the project is real-time monitoring data, improving business operational capacity, consulting 26 businesses, and training 51 smart factory experts.

Regarding the plan to find local Vietnamese enterprises' supplies, Samsung said that in 2025, the Group will research and expand the field of improving environmental safety standards, ensuring a stable supply chain for manufacturing plants as well as cooperating with Vietnamese enterprises, creating opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to participate in Samsung's supply chain.

Referring to the topic of net-zero transition and Korea-Vietnam cooperation in the energy sector, a representative of Doosan Enerbility Group informed that Doosan currently has 4 thermal power plants in Vietnam.

Accordingly, since 2006, the Group has invested in building a production facility with a scale of 300 million USD, a total of 1,600 Vietnamese employees, 20 Korean staff with a total area of 100 hectares.

Previously, boiler production used coal fuel, the future applies clean energy to production, applies renewable energy technology, core wind power technology towards CO2 reduction, providing a system to capture carbon generated during power generation.

“If Vietnam has a need, Doosan is ready to participate in the nuclear power project. We are strong in implementing large and small-scale power projects, especially in gas and wind power. Regarding wind power in Vietnam's Power Plan 8, with turbine manufacturing technology, pioneering in the field of wind power, our company can contribute to the wind power sector in Vietnam,” said a Doosan representative.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) discussed cooperation in green growth and clean energy.

Accordingly, BCG representative said that Vietnam has many important factors to implement green growth such as having a long coastline to develop renewable energy, high rate of digital technology usage, Vietnam has 100 million people, willing to spend on environmental protection products...

In addition, the ability to attract FDI is high; Vietnam's green economic growth momentum is high, Vietnam's carbon reserves are abundant with a high forest coverage rate. Priority green industries have new opportunities in Vietnam such as wind power, solar power, hydrogen gas projects, clean transportation, industries with green industrial solutions, etc.

This representative also recommended that the Vietnamese Government is determined to improve the investment environment, proactively plan to attract investment in green fields and green finance, but needs a clear legal framework, systematic classification of green investment, green development, measurement standards and audit reports on green standards.

At the end of the forum, a series of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) on cooperation between ministries, sectors and businesses of the two countries were signed and announced; opening up billion-dollar cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and Korea in the future.

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