Vietnam Eases Business Concerns for South Korean Companies

Until recently, there hadn’t been a department to support small and medium-sized Korean enterprises with tax and customs related issues in Vietnam. Last week, however, the Ministry of Finance held a conference in Ho Chi Minh City to support Korean businesses relating to problems with taxes and customs procedures during their business in Vietnam. The Korean business groups now have the opportunity to solve their problems with tax and custom procedures with the Vietnamese authorities.

During a similar conference in Hanoi one week earlier, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and the Korean Embassy in Vietnam agreed that Korean business would be treated the same as Vietnamese enterprises and the Ministry supported Korean businesses and would limit the barriers in the Vietnamese economic environment.

Additionally the South Korean Ambassador to Vietnam, Nam Ha Chan Ho, said last week that the official development assistance from South Korea to Vietnam would be increased up to US$3 billion until 2015, as well as US$215 million in referential financial loan (US$1 billion from 2008-2011) and US$20 million in non-refundable ODA assistance this year. The ODA should be used for four key sectors:

• Creating a foundation for sustainable development, including environmental projects
• Developing human resources
• Transport infrastructure
• Health care and rural development sectors

From 1991-2010 Korea provided about US$129 million in assistance to Vietnam. The assistance was mainly for the information and communication sector, education and healthcare.

Altogether, South Korea supported Vietnam from 1999-2010 with US$129 million in non-refundable assistance and US$1.26 billion in preferential loans.

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