Trade volume between the two countries has already reached 25 billion won in the January-October period, according to tallies from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) and Korea International Trade Association. For the whole of 2013, the figure came to 28 billion won.

Clothes, fisheries and agricultural goods were among the major incoming trade products to South Korea, according to the data.

South Korea and Vietnam earlier this month essentially concluded a free trade agreement (FTA) that covers 17 areas including products, service and investment, with the exclusion of rice.

Through the latest FTA, outgoing shipments from South Korea to its partner country are forecast to jump as much as 28 percent, while those from Vietnam may rise up to 20 percent, according to government estimates.

Accordingly, the increase in trade is estimated to add up to 0.74 percent and 3.22 percent in the annual economic growth of South Korea and Vietnam, respectively.

A recent Kotra survey of 166 Vietnamese firms showed that 95 percent of the companies were willing to import more products after the bilateral FTA comes into effect, with 37 percent answering they will expand imports by more than one tenth of the current amount.

By item, 20 percent of the respondents chose medicine and medical appliances as a major area to expand imports in, followed by 15 percent in IT products, 12 percent in automotive parts and 10 percent each in both electronics goods and machinery, according to the survey.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries were first established in 1992. The recent FTA, which took almost two and a half years to take shape, is not the only trade deal that connects the two nations, as South Korea had already inked a free trade deal with the Association of South East Asian Nations, of which Vietnam is a member.

Source: Intellasia