Vietnam, RoK firms look to boost trade in apparel, footwear
The Republic of Korea (RoK) is the largest investor in the textile - garment and leather - footwear industries of Vietnam, which holds considerable chances to boost the export of these commodities to the Northeast Asian market, heard a recent teleconference.
Making apparel products for export at Hung Viet garment company, Yen My district, Hung Yen province. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – TheRepublic of Korea (RoK) is the largest investor in the textile - garment andleather - footwear industries of Vietnam, which holds considerable chancesto boost the export of these commodities to the Northeast Asian market, heard arecent teleconference.
Addressing the businessmatching event, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency Le HoangTai said the RoK is currently one of the leading economic partners of Vietnam,ranking first in foreign direct investment and third in trade with the latterlast year.
Bilateral trade reached 63billion USD in the first 10 months of 2021, up 17.6 percent year on year. Thatincluded 17.9 billion USD of Vietnamese exports, rising 11.5 percent.
Vietnam shipped 26.9 billionUSD worth of textile - garment and 14.24 billion USD worth of leather -footwear products to the RoK during the period. The full-year figures areforecast to hit 33.9 billion USD and 18.52 billion USD, respectively, accordingto Tai.
Kyoung Don Kim, head of theinvestment promotion division at the Korea Trade - Investment Promotion Agency(KOTRA) Office in Hanoi, noted his country is the biggest investor inthe textile - garment industry in Vietnam, which in turn is the second tradepartner of the RoK in this sector.
Vice Chairman of the VietnamTextile & Apparel Association (VITAS) Truong Van Cam expressed his hopethat the RoK will invest more in the local industry, especially in materialproduction and design, so as to benefit from preferential treatment under freetrade agreements.
For her part, Phan Thi ThanhXuan, Vice Chairwoman and Secretary General of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear andHandbag Association (LEFASO), said the country is the second biggest exporter ofleather - footwear products in the world, about 20 billion USD in revenue, followingChina. There are nearly 2,000 enterprises in this sector, and they engage inall production steps. Meanwhile, the RoK is one of the five main export marketsof this industry.
Given this, Vietnamesebusinesses have relatively big opportunities to cooperate with Korean importersto boost exports, she added./.
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Making apparel products for export at Hung Viet garment company, Yen My district, Hung Yen province. (Photo: VNA) 
