VIETNAM, August 23 –
SEOUL — Việt Nam should have safeguard policies to encourage companies from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to voluntarily transfer technology to Vietnamese partners through their projects in the Southeast Asian country, according to a researcher from the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) ). ).
In a recent interview given to the Vietnam News Agency at the upcoming international conference on RoK – Việt Nam cooperation, Kawk Sung-il, Director of KIEP’s security strategy center, said that Vietnamese companies should pay close attention to the development of their technologies in parallel with the promotion of international cooperation, thus making the transfer of technology more effective through cooperation with foreign companies operating in the domestic market.
RoK – Việt Nam bilateral relations have developed strongly over the past three decades and reaped fruitful achievements, especially in the economic aspect, he said, adding that the two sides should discuss more cooperation methods to sustainably develop relations. in the future.
According to Kwak, economic cooperation is a bright spot in bilateral relations with Việt Nam now the RoK’s third largest trading partner.
By the time the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992, two-way trade turnover was only US$490 million, equivalent to 0.3 percent of RoK’s total trade income. However, 28 years later, in 2020, the figure rose to 7 percent.
In terms of investment, RoK becomes the largest foreign direct investor in Việt Nam. In 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, RoK investment in Việt Nam decreased, but many Korean companies still ranked Việt Nam as the most promising country among ASEAN member countries.
But the official also mentioned the trade imbalance between the two countries, saying that with the increase in bilateral trade, the imbalance is also gradually worsening.
Increasing Việt Nam’s agricultural exports to the RoK can help resolve the trade imbalance, but this is only a short-term solution, he said, adding that Việt Nam must have solutions to attract more investment from the RoK, thereby helping Vietnamese companies to participate in RoK production network.
If a strong supply chain can be established between the two countries, bilateral mutual relations will be promoted more sustainably, he asserted.
He also noted that Việt Nam has made great efforts to attract foreign investment. In June 2020, the National Assembly of Việt Nam approved the amended Law on Investment, which came into effect in 2021. This is considered a major effort by the Vietnamese government to increase the transparency of the institution through legal regulations.
The expert suggested that Việt Nam should promote production capacity and technology to join the supply chain.
When analyzing Việt Nam’s export value, it can be seen that the percentage of domestic value added is still low, according to Kwak Sung-il. This means that most of the production, components and spare parts are located abroad and the degree of product localization is low. By the end of 2017, out of a total of 26,700 FDI projects in Việt Nam, only 600 projects had technology transfer contracts.
Compared to other ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the rate of value added in Vietnamese products is still low. Therefore, Vietnamese companies should pay more attention to the development of technologies together with international cooperation, thereby helping to improve the effectiveness of technology transfer through cooperation with foreign companies operating in the domestic market, he said. – VNS