On the occasion of the visit and working in Nghe An, on the morning of March 08, Y-mart Retail Group, Gwangju City, South Korea had a meeting with the Nghe An Provincial People's Committe to learn about the investment cooperation potential.

On the side of Y-mart Retail Group, Gwangju city, Korea, there were Mr. Seogjin Kim - Y-mart CEO; Mr. Chanyuk Kim - Development Director of Y-mart branch.

On the side of Nghe An province, there were Mr. Bui Dinh Long - Provincial Member, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee (PPC); Leader representatives of departments and branches: PPC Office, Foreign Affairs, Planning and Investment, Construction, Industry and Trade, Provincial Center for Investment Promotion, Trade and Tourism.

Overview of the meeting

Vice Chairman of the PPC Bui Dinh Long speaks

Expressing his pleasure to welcome the delegation to visit and work in Nghe An, Vice Chairman of the PPC Bui Dinh Long briefly introduced some information about Nghe An province.

Nghe An has the largest natural land area in the country, rich and diverse terrain, with sea, plains, midlands and mountains. The population ranks fourth in the country, including about 1.9 million people of working age and the proportion of skilled workers is quite high. Nghe An is the hometown of President Ho Chi Minh - a world cultural celebrity; a famous land with a tradition of studiousness, good study, industriousness and creativity; the education - training center of the North Central region with 06 universities, 11 colleges, more than 70 intermediate schools and vocational training centers.

Economic scale (GRDP) in 2022 reached 175,740 billion VND, ranking 2^nd in the North Central and Central Coast regions, and 10^th in the whole country. Investment attraction has seen many positive changes, increasing in scale, quantity and quality of projects, especially attracting FDI projects which has been a prominent highlight in recent years. Business investment environment continues to be paid attention and promoted: The PAPI in 2021 ranked 15^th in the country; PAR ranked 17^th nationwide; particularly, the PCI ranked among the top in the North Central region (3^rd after Hue and Ha Tinh), and ranked 30^th nationwide. In 2022, for the first time, Nghe An entered the group of 10 localities attracting the highest FDI in the country, with a total registered capital of nearly 1 billion USD.

Accumulated up to now, Nghe An has attracted 118 FDI projects from 15 countries and territories, with a total registered capital of 2.58 billion USD. In particular, there are many large-scale FDI projects in the field of manufacturing electronic products and auto parts of large corporations such as Goertek (500 million USD), Ju Teng (200 million USD), Everwin (200 million USD), etc. Korean investment alone has 23 projects/166.70 million USD.

Export turnover in 2022 reached nearly 2.49 billion USD. Some items with large export turnovers such as: sheet steel, all kinds of steel, textiles, electronic components, processed fruits and fruit juices, shoes of all kinds, wood pellets, paving stone, handicraft products, etc. The export market includes 127 countries and territories, of which the total export turnover to Korea accounts for 13%.

Vice Chairman of the PPC Bui Dinh Long affirmed that in order to achieve these results, Nghe An province has always paid attention to administrative reform, promoted the improvement of business investment environment, strongly promoted investment attraction; focused on supporting and removing difficulties and obstacles for enterprises and investors. At the same time, focusing on mobilizing and effectively using resources, arranging capital sources with focus and key points; prioritizing investment in infrastructure systems, especially transport infrastructure such as seaports and airports; paying attention to infrastructure investment in industrial parks and industrial clusters to attract investment. These are important prerequisites to effectively exploit and promote the advantages of Nghe An province.

Vice Chairman of the PPC also said: In October 2022, the delegation of the Gwangju City Government led by the Vice Mayor and the Vice Chairman of the Council visited and worked in Nghe An. Also on this occasion, the two localities signed a friendship cooperation agreement in many fields. Since then, the two sides have had many delegation exchange activities. The Y-mart delegation's activity today in Nghe An is also an activity within the framework of the cooperation agreement between the two localities.

The Vice Chairman of the PPC believed that this visit will be a big step forward in the investment and expansion of the market of Y-mart in Nghe An; and expressed that Nghe An province would like to listen to Y-mart's strategies deployed in Nghe An to accompany and support the project to put the project into operation soon.

Mr. Seogjin Kim - CEO of Y-mart said that the group is interested in promoting investment in Nghe An province

Thanks to the warm welcome of the Nghe An provincial leaders, Mr. Seogjin Kim - CEO of Y-mart hoped the relationship between Nghe An province and Y-mart will be more connected in the future.

Y-mart CEO said that the Group is currently interested in the products of kitchen utensils of Hong Son Trading Production Co., Ltd., clean vegetables and fruits, dried squid, etc. of the province; and is considering exporting Korean products to Nghe An market such as green grapes, which is currently a favorite item of Nghe An people. During the product survey at Hong Son Trading Production Co., Ltd., Y-mart CEO asked the government to support cooperation to have the first order. At the same time, the province creates favorable conditions for introducing locations, human resources, and supporting the establishment of legal entities for Y-mart to promote investment in the near future.

Kim Oanh