The statement was made by Ha Huy Tuan, vice chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, at the 8th International Conference on Finance and Economics, co-organised in Ha Noi on March 21-22 by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Viet Nam’s Ministry of Finance (MOF), The South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and South Korea’s magazine EDAILY.

“We really hope that Korean investors will grasp co-operation opportunities by participating in the equitisation process of Vietnamese enterprises, especially the restructure of the banking sector and the application of fintech (financial technology),” Tuan said.

"The application of fintech to build a comprehensive public finance management system in Viet Nam has great potential because the country has a young population, good internet infrastructure and a rapidly-expanding middle class," Tuan said.

According to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) Nguyen Kim Anh, South Korea is one of the countries with the most number of banks in the Vietnamese market with two foreign-invested banks, eight foreign-invested bank branches, six representative offices and two financial leasing companies.

“Co-operation between the two countries in banking and finance was not only within the scope of investment co-operation but also in the exchange and mutual support in professional skills and strengthening the capacity of officials between the two sides,” Kim Anh said.

“This conference will be a valuable opportunity for management agencies and enterprises of the two countries to contact and learn to exploit the potential of fintech development in the dynamic financial and banking market of both South Korea and Viet Nam,” Kim Anh said.

South Korean ambassador to Viet Nam Kim Do Hyon said the bilateral co-operation between Viet Nam and Korea appeared to be an ideal, highly reliable relationship with many cultural and historical similarities.

The successful organisation of the second DPRK-USA summit showed that Viet Nam had an important role in promoting co-operation between South and North Korea.

The trade war between the US and China remained a big concern and the flow of investment was shifting to Viet Nam. Therefore, Viet Nam needed flexible and proactive financial and economic policies to seize these opportunities, Kim Do Hyon said.

He hoped that Viet Nam would continue to support and create favourable conditions for foreign financial institutions to invest in the country, and promote areas such as merger and acquisition of enterprises, fintech, infrastructure investment projects and industrial projects, thereby contributing to improving people’s lives and economic development.

Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha said over the past 25 years, Viet Nam-Korea Relations and the economic ties between the two sides have flourished.

Regarding trade, Ha said South Korea was the second largest trade partner of Viet Nam and Viet Nam was South Korea’s fourth largest trade partner. In 2018, bilateral trade reached US$65.7 billion, of which Viet Nam’s exports to South Korea reached $18.2 billion, up 22.8 per cent and Viet Nam’s imports from South Korea reached $47.5 billion, up more than one per cent compared to 2017.

In terms of investment, South Korea was the largest foreign investor in Viet Nam. In the last five years, the annual registered foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea remained at $7 to $9 billion, Ha said.

Deputy Minister Ha said that there were more than 6,600 Korean investors participating in the Vietnamese stock market and six Korean-invested securities companies. Korea was also the leading country in investing in Viet Nam’s stock market.

In the field of insurance, many Korean companies such as Hanwha Life, Mirae, Samsung Vina and Seoul Guarantee were operating effectively, contributing to promoting the development of the Vietnamese insurance market, he said.

“Viet Nam is an ideal destination for many large transnational corporations, including Korean corporations such as Samsung, LG, and Lotte. The Government of Viet Nam will continue to focus on institutional reforms, macroeconomic stability strengthening and inflation control. We will continue to restructure the economy, especially restructuring public investment and state-owned enterprises, improving the business environment, promoting rapid and sustainable economic growth, and actively promote international integration with a focus on economic integration," Ha said.