Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang (right) and RoK Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang-jick signed the deal on May 5. — Photo courtesy of MoIT

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have officially signed a free trade agreement (FTA) after over two years of negotiations.

With 17 chapters, 208 articles, 15 appendices and one agreement specifying commitment delivery, the deal was signed by Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and RoK Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang-jick in Ha Noi on May 5.

It covers commodity and service trade, investment, intellectual property, food hygiene and plant quarantine, rules of origin, customs facilitation, trade protection, technical barriers in trade, e-commerce, competition, economic cooperation and legal regulations.

Under the agreement, the RoK will help Viet Nam improve its capacity to develop and enforce policies and competitiveness in agro-forestry-fisheries, electronic technology, petrochemical and oil refinery and support industry.

As the first agreement signed among those whose negotiations concluded last year, the Viet Nam – RoK FTA is expected to have positive repercussions across all aspects in Viet Nam, including generating jobs and reducing poverty.

The RoK is currently the biggest investor in Viet Nam with pledges totaling US$38 billion in more than 42,000 projects as of March 2015, according to government data.

The two countries target $70 billion in trade by 2020. The 2014 figure hit 30.3 billion USD. — VNS