South Korea planned to implement domestic procedures necessary for free trade deal with Vietnam as part of efforts to strengthen economic ties with the South East Asian country, the finance ministry said Monday.
"Based on a joint study completed in October 2011, we will take domestic procedures necessary to launch a negotiation on the ROK- Vietnam free trade agreement (FTA)," the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in a statement.
The ministry noted that the bilateral free trade talks will include goods, services and investment as well as intellectual property rights and other issues, saying that the economic cooperation between the two countries will expand into the energy and mineral resources sector.
Vietnam has recently emerged as a major export destination for South Korea due to the South East Asian economy's fast growth rate of over 6 percent, according to the ministry. Vietnam is the South Korea's eight-largest export destination, of which export volume surged to 13.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 from 1.7 billion dollars a decade ago.
The ministry said that it will work out an export strategy tailored for Vietnam in the defense industry, adding that as for nuclear power plant export, South Korea will access the South East Asian nation from a long-term perspective.