This is the first time Vietnam has become the largest trade partner of the RoK.
The ministry reported that the RoK’s export turnover to Vietnam last year totaled 60.98 billion USD, while it spent 26.72 billion USD on importing goods from the Southeast Asian nation.
An official from the ministry said that among the ASEAN countries, Vietnam is emerging as a production base for global companies, adding that Korean businesses are constantly making inroads into the Vietnamese market.
After Vietnam, the countries and territories that the RoK had large trade surplus included the US with 28.04 billion USD, Hong Kong (China) 25.79 billion USD, India 9.98 billion USD, and Singapore 9.86 billion USD.
Last year, the RoK’s export turnover hit a high record of 683.9 billion USD, leaping to the sixth position in the world. However, it also recorded a record high trade deficit of 47.2 billion USD as its imports soared amid rising energy prices.
