Kyoung Don Kim, head of the investment promotion group of the Korean Trade and Investment Promotion Agency in Hanoi, said that South Korea is the largest investor in Vietnam’s textile industry. As of 2019, Korean textile companies accounted for more than 25% of the country’s textile industry. The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam; Vietnam is also the second largest trading partner of South Korea’s textile industry. As of 2020, the total bilateral textile industry trade reached US$6.3 billion.
According to Truong VanCam, vice chairman of the Vietnam Textile Association (VITAS), Vietnam’s textile industry is currently focusing on the processing and production field, and the local brand design and sales foundation has not yet been perfected. The Vietnam Textile Association expressed the hope that Korean companies will continue to actively invest in Vietnamese textile companies, especially in the upstream stages such as fabric production, dyeing and finishing fields, and textile raw and auxiliary materials fields, and design time to meet the conditions of various free trade agreements.
In addition to the textile industry, leather and shoemaking are also key areas of cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam. According to PhanThi Thanh There are currently about 2,000 companies in this field, involved in the production of raw materials to finished products. South Korea is one of the five major export markets for Vietnam’s leather and shoemaking, with an annual growth of about 10%. He said that in the future, Korean companies and Vietnamese companies will have more cooperation opportunities, thereby improving the export performance of Vietnam’s leather and shoemaking industry.
