KOTRA brings firms together on bilateral trade

Representatives of a Vietnamese firm discussing trade deals with their Korean counterparts via online platforms. Photo bnews.vn

HÀ NỘI — Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Hà Nội has organised a trade event to boost commercial links between Vietnamese and Korean firms.

The event took place between March 21 and 25 in the form of online meetings.

58 South Korean firms promoted local products to 76 Vietnamese firms during the event, including foods and beverages, cosmetics, beauty equipment, and home appliances.

They also discussed South Korean and international standards applicable to the products, the transport of product samples to Việt Nam for lab experiments, and the requirements to become an authorised distributor.

Korean firms agreed to offer support to help Vietnamese firms amid the pandemic. The support will come in the form of preferential prices and lower transportation costs.

More potential agreements are also expected to be discussed in the coming days, and KOTRA Hà Nội will act as an intermediary to help both parties reach such agreements.

Trần Thị Hải Yến, head of KOTRA Hà Nội, acknowledged that many Vietnamese firms had begun to express their interest in the Korean market and firms from both countries have gone to great lengths to support each other.

She also underlined the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 as a major reason that her agency moved offline meetings to online platforms, ensuring the continuity of trade events.

In 2021, about 900 South Korean firms linked up with over 1,000 Vietnamese firms through 1,910 online meetings.

Thanks to the trade events, many Vietnamese firms have found their Korean partners and begun to import Korean products.

Remarkably, successful trade deals did not decrease in number even during the pandemic.

Experts believe that the steady growth of the Vietnamese economy, the stability of the political system and the Government’s capability to control the pandemic are favourable factors that will attract more South Korean firms to the country.

Việt Nam is regarded as a potential market for Korean firms, notably after the country implemented tariff reductions to South Korean imports under free trade agreements between the two countries. — VnExpress News