Vietnam, South Korea seal FTA

Hanoi

VIETNAM signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea on Tuesday which is expected to boost its exports to the Korean market and more than double bilateral trade over the next five years, the Vietnamese government said.

The agreement with Seoul is among a series of trade deals Vietnam has been chasing as part of its ambitions to become a regional manufacturing dynamo and lure investment to strengthen its US$184 billion economy. "Signing the FTA is an initial step, while it is more important for the two countries to have sincere cooperation so that the pact's implementation will be smooth," Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told South Korea's trade, industry and Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick, according to a government statement.