By Francesco Guarascio and Joyce Lee
HANOI/SEOUL, April 23 (Reuters) – South Korean and Vietnamese companies are expected to sign dozens of business deals on Thursday as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung visits Hanoi, a preliminary list seen by Reuters showed.
The corporate contracts and non-binding deals, for which no total value was given, will follow the signing a day earlier of 12 cooperation pacts at a meeting between Lee and Vietnam’s top leader To Lam, including one on Korean investment in a new nuclear plant in southern Vietnam.
Officials of more than 100 Korean companies with operations in Vietnam including longtime investor Samsung Electronics are accompanying Lee, following a visit to India, officials and media said.
A list of 73 corporate agreements, updated to Wednesday and subject to changes, includes non-binding business cooperation agreements on finance, advanced technology, infrastructure and energy.
The document lists an investment licence for a liquefied natural gas power plant to be co-developed by SK Innovation with local partners, and non-binding memoranda of understanding for the development of data centres in Vietnam by SK Innovation, SK Telecom and Daewoo E&C. It also includes an investment certificate to expand an existing facility in Vietnam run by Seojin System Co, a communication equipment maker.
In a regulatory filing earlier on Thursday, Hyundai Rotem said it won orders worth about $332 million for a three-phase rail project in Ho Chi Minh City. The agreement is mentioned on the list without an investment value.
SAMSUNG AMONG ACCOMPANYING DELEGATIONS
The officials with Lee include those representing Samsung Electronics, SK, LG, Lotte, POSCO Holdings and HD Hyundai, they added.
Samsung has the largest presence in the Southeast Asian nation after decades of investment running into more than $20 billion.
It has recently made progress in years-long talks with Vietnamese authorities for a possible back-end semiconductor factory, sources familiar with the discussions have said.
On Wednesday, Vietnam’s central bank said it had issued a licence to Industrial Bank of Korea to open a wholly-owned unit in Vietnam.
Lee asked Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on Thursday to help tackle issues facing Korean businesses in Vietnam and pave the way for their participation in strategic infrastructure projects, state media said.
Korean businesses raise issues such as access to investment incentives, tax refunds and rising wages in Vietnam, pushed up recently by a large influx of Chinese manufacturers.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Hugh Lawson)
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