After 52 large American enterprises came to Vietnam to seek investment opportunities in March, it was the turn of a delegation of 205 Korean enterprises to come to Vietnam, during the 3-day visit (from June 22 to 24) of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

These businesses are in many fields such as distribution, finance, law, healthcare, information technology, and service sectors. Notably, the delegation also includes the chairmen of the five leading Korean corporations: Samsung Electronics, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, and Lotte.

Golden opportunity to attract quality FDI capital

Commenting on this event, economic experts said that this is a very good opportunity for Vietnam to attract more "eagle" investors. At the same time, it also proves that our investment and business environment has improved, Vietnam is always a destination for foreign investment flows.

Responding to VTC News , economic expert, Dr. Bui Kien Thanh commented that in recent years, investment attraction between Vietnam and Korea has developed very well. Korea has always been one of the leading countries participating in investment and promoting economic development in Vietnam. This is also a country with high technology and can mobilize large amounts of investment that Vietnamese enterprises have not been able to mobilize...

"This visit by the Korean business delegation is certainly a good and rare opportunity for domestic enterprises to cooperate and invest, helping Vietnam attract quality FDI capital," said Mr. Thanh.

Mr. Thanh confidently stated that Vietnam’s recent FDI attraction has seen rapid development, proving that foreign businesses feel confident and are coming to learn about and invest in Vietnam. If we continue to create an open atmosphere in attracting investment and reduce procedures, Vietnam will certainly become the center of FDI inflows in the entire North Asia and South Asia region. This is a very positive signal for Vietnam’s economy in the coming time.

Sharing the same view, economic expert, Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong analyzed that recently, Vietnam has welcomed many large business delegations visiting from the US, India and now South Korea.

"The fact that more than 200 Korean enterprises accompanied the President of this country to Vietnam is further proof that Vietnam is a destination for foreign investment flows, and is of great interest to corporations in the process of shifting the investment environment. This visit brings new expectations for promoting Vietnam-Korea investment cooperation. Vietnam needs to exploit the opportunity well to make up for the decline in FDI in the first 6 months of this year," said Dr. Phong.

Experts say the most exciting thing is that Korean businesses always trust and consider Vietnam as the largest investment destination outside of Korea.

All five major Korean corporations have invested in Vietnam on a large scale and are preparing expansion plans. Late last year, Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee visited Vietnam to attend the inauguration of Samsung's R&D Center in Vietnam. According to the plan, Samsung will invest an additional 3.3 billion USD in Vietnam, of which 2 billion USD has been invested in projects in Thai Nguyen and Ho Chi Minh City. It is expected that by the end of this year, Samsung will put into mass production semiconductor chip grid products at the Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam Factory in Thai Nguyen.

Late last year, the Chairman of LG Group revealed that LG would invest an additional 5 billion USD in Vietnam in the near future. Meanwhile, Lotte Group is in the process of completing Lotte MALL Hanoi and building the smart complex - Lotte Eco Smart Thu Thiem.

Early last September, when he came to Vietnam to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of this project, Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin said that Lotte Eco Smart Thu Thiem would mark the “starting point” for Lotte Group’s upcoming investment expansion activities in Vietnam.

SK is still on the journey to increase its presence in Vietnam through large-scale investments in Masan, Vingroup... And Hyundai Motor also operated Hyundai Thanh Cong Factory No. 2 in Ninh Binh at the end of last year.

Expressing his opinion, Dr. Le Duy Binh, CEO of Economica Vietnam, said that the two economies of Vietnam and Korea currently have great complementarity with each other.

"On the Korean side, they are looking for many opportunities to invest abroad because they have a weakness in human resources, while Vietnam has this advantage, as well as the overseas market. With more than 100 million people, Vietnam's labor force is very abundant. As for the market, Vietnam has signed 18 Asian and international Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)... On the contrary, Vietnam is lacking capital, technology, business ideas and is in great need of supplementation from Korean enterprises," said Dr. Le Duy Binh.

According to Dr. Le Duy Binh, in the context of the current shift in the global supply chain, many countries have emerged, including Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. in Southeast Asia. Therefore, the arrival of more than 200 Korean enterprises in Vietnam is an opportunity for them to learn and research how to turn Vietnam into a production center for products in which they have strengths such as electronics and mechanics, in order to supply the global supply chain to G7 and G20 countries. This is a wide-open opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises and economy.

What does Vietnam need to change?

To retain Korean businesses, according to Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong, Vietnam needs to make an important change, which is to create a business environment that meets the requirements of corporations, especially large corporations with the ability to invest long-term. To do this, the policy-making mindset needs to change to create a breakthrough.

Dr. Le Duy Binh said that although Vietnam has a large human resource, its qualifications are still limited (only about 25% of the workforce is trained). Therefore, Vietnam needs to quickly overcome difficulties in the quality of human resources.

"We need to do better to make a difference, especially in human resources and vocational skills. Along with that, the number of qualified engineers in innovative fields is still low. For example, if Samsung, Hyundai, and LG want to invest heavily, they really need Vietnamese engineers for their R&D (Research and Development) centers to cut costs when having to hire engineers from other countries," Dr. Le Duy Binh analyzed.

In addition, infrastructure also needs additional investment. Although we have improved a lot in recent years, we need to make more efforts to create a new Vietnam to reduce logistics costs.

"We also need to continue to strongly reform institutions and administrative procedures to compete more strongly with countries in the region in bringing benefits to investors, thereby attracting FDI enterprises," said Dr. Le Duy Binh.

PHAM DUY