The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said on May 10 that it will relocate its Southeast Asia headquarters from Singapore to the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi to support Korean companies doing businesses in the fast-growing market. 

CEO Kwon Pyung-oh of KOTRA (Photo: Yonhap)

KOTRA said the decision was made in consideration of the growing number of Korean companies that are based in Vietnam or that plan to invest in the Southeast Asian nation.

According to KOTRA, bilateral trade between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) reached 63.9 billion USD in 2017. Vietnam is now the fourth largest trading partner of the RoK while the country is Vietnam's second-largest.

The agency also plans to open new business centres in Ahmedabad, an industrial city in western India, and in Da Nang, a commercial hub in Vietnam’s central region. 

KOTRA will expand business centres in promising markets to keep up with the changing trade environment, said CEO Kwon Pyung-oh.

The agency is currently operating 10 local head offices and 127 business centres in 86 countries around the world.

Vietnam and the RoK are working to raise two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2020. The RoK ranked first among 125 nations and territories pouring capital into Vietnam in 2017, with total registered capital hitting 57.7 billion USD.-VNA