Viet Nam likely to become South Korea's third largest trading partner
VGP - Viet Nam is likely to become the third-largest trading partner of the Republic of Korea (RoK) in 2022, according to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on December 21.
Trade between the RoK and Viet Nam was US$500 million in 1992 when the two countries set up their formal diplomatic relations.
It reached US$80.7 billion in 2021, a 161-fold increase. As of November this year, with US$81.1 billion, Viet Nam became the RoK’s third-largest trading partner, surpassing Japan (US$ 78.4 billion).
The two countries agreed in this July to raise bilateral trade to US$100 billion in 2023 and to US$150 billion by 2030.
The Northeast Asian country has maintained a trade surplus since 1992. In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it recorded a record trade surplus of US$32.7 billion.
Both countries have recently upgraded their relations to comprehensive strategic partnership from strategic partnership./.