Ample room for Vietnam to boost exports to Japan, RoK
HCM City (VNA) – A workshop discussing
measures to promote trade links between Vietnam and Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK)
was held by the Centre of International Integration Support and the Investment & Trade
Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City (ITPC) on April 19 in
the city.
Addressing the event, Deputy Director of the HCM
City Institute for Development
Studies Pham Binh An said Japan and the RoK are the important
trading partners of Vietnam, but the proportion of Vietnamese goods in the
total import turnover of these markets is still modest, accounting for only
2.7% and 3.3%, respectively.
Vietnam signed many free trade agreements with the two
countries, including the Vietnam-Japan Economic
Partnership Agreement (VJEPA),
the Comprehensive
and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific
Partnership (CPTPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP), and the Vietnam – Korea Free Trade Agreement.
According to An, Vietnam
has strengths in exports with many key items such as textiles and garments,
footwear, and agricultural products. For the first time, Vietnam's import-export
turnover exceed 700 billion USD in 2022, putting the country in the group of
leading economies in international trade.
However, he said
that Vietnam's exports face many challenges this year due to the decrease in
global consumer demand, particularly in important export markets of Vietnam. Therefore, exploring potential markets such as Japan and the RoK will be important to increasing Vietnam’s export growth.
From statistics on
Vietnam's export turnover to Japan and the RoK, as well as the market scale of the
countries, it can be seen that there still remains great potential and
opportunities for Vietnam to promote the export of textile and garment
products, leather and footwear products, and agro-aquatic products, to these
markets, said Do Quoc Hung, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's
Department of Asia-Africa Markets.
Choi Kyu Chul, Vice President of the Korean Chamber of Business in Vietnam (KOCHAM) stressed the need to have short-term,
medium-term and long-term strategies to further promote trade ties between the
two countries.
In the short term, it is necessary to prioritise
ensuring the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the RoK market in terms of
price, diversity, packaging, and marketing strategies.
In the medium and long term, Vietnam should pay attention to developing a
high-quality workforce and investing in infrastructure development and supporting industries such as materials and components, he
stressed.
Korean
businesses hope that the Vietnamese Government will have new policies to
further support the development of industries and businesses in the near
future, especially supporting environmentally-friendly industries, he went on./.