South Korea, a big market for Vietnam’s shrimp in Asia, will test the ethoxyquin contents in shrimp shipments from now until the year-end. According to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad), Vietnam’s shrimp exports to South Korea will undergo the ethoxyquin test in one year. The level permitted by South Korea’s Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and... 

South Korea’s foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam in Jan-May drops by 51% year-on-year, show the figures of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Speaking at a dialogue with South Korean enterprises on Wednesday, FIA director Do Nhat Hoang said South Korea is currently the second biggest investor in Vietnam. Still, with 58 fresh projects worth... 

South Korea’s CJ Group is planning to expand investment in various fields in HCMC after having developed some projects in Vietnam, said Lee Jay Hyun, president of the company. Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the city on Tuesday, he said the investment expansion plan for HCMC was part of CJ’s globalization strategy. The company is active in sectors such as food, catering services, entertainment... 

South Korea’s current account surplus shrank sharply in August amid weaker exports due to the holiday season, the central bank said Thursday. The surplus in the account — the broadest measure of trade — was $401.3 million in August compared to a revised $3.77 billion the previous month, the Bank of Korea said. The August figure was the smallest since a $154.7 million surplus in January... 

South Korean leading retailer E-Mart has stepped into Vietnam via a joint venture deal with local U&I Investment Corporation (U&I) to establish E-Mart Vietnam and the tie-up will promote Vietnamese agricultural products globally, said U&I’s chairman Mai Huu Tin. Is going into a joint venture with E-Mart a way to help U&I materialise its investment plans since banks’ credit tightening... 

Standard Chartered bank’s South Korean unit said Monday it would temporarily shut dozens of offices due to a strike by workers protesting at attempts to adopt a performance-based pay system. SC First Bank said in a statement it would close 43 of its 392 branches, mostly in the capital Seoul, until the strike that began two weeks ago comes to an end. The bank said employees who have not joined... 

A sweeping free trade pact between the European Union and South Korea, the first in Asia for the world’s largest economic bloc, came into effect on Friday, officials in Seoul said. “The South Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) took effect as of early Friday,” Kim Hee-Sang, director for FTA negotiations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told AFP. The ministry said in... 

German lighting company Osram, which is owned by industrial giant Siemens, said Monday that it had filed suit against Samsung and LG of Korea for patent violations. Osram filed complaints in Germany and the United States in connection with alleged violations regarding patents for light emitting diode (LED) technology and plans to file another on Tuesday against LG in China, a statement said. “Osram... 

South Korea’s Hana Bank is planning to launch operations in Vietnam, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported Tuesday. According to the report, Hana Bank’s president Kim Jeong Tae met with senior Vietnamese financial officials and expressed his interest in doing business in Vietnam’s growing economy. The bank has a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City but is seeking to turn it into a bank... 

The Export-Import Bank of the Republic of Korea (Korea Eximbank) on May 4 opened a representative office in Hanoi , the second of its kind in Vietnam following another in Ho Chi Minh City . The office will support RoK businesses operating in the Southeast Asian region while contributing to developing economic cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK through the effective use of the RoK Economic Development...