Over 1,500 South Korean businesspeople set to visit Vietnam

By Hoang Phong   July 21, 2020 | 04:00 am PT
Over 1,500 South Korean businesspeople set to visit Vietnam
An aircraft carrying South Korean experts land at Van Don Airport in Quang Ninh Province, April 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Binh Minh.
More than 1,500 South Korean businesspeople are expected to fly to Vietnam on charter flights from now through next month.

570 of them, from 240 companies would arrive Wednesday, Vietnam News Agency reported, citing a source from South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Through August, 1,500 are expected to come.

All arrivals will undergo mandatory two-week quarantine.

Last Sunday 101 South Korean experts, managers and high-tech workers from Incheon City arrived by charter flight to Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s biggest island in the southern province of Kien Giang, to work for a major business group that has a billion-dollar project there.

Earlier several special flights also brought South Korean experts to Vietnam to work for tech giants such as Samsung and LG.

Last week the South Korean ambassador to Vietnam, Park Noh-wan, said companies want Vietnam to be flexible with quarantine requirements for experts and executives entering the country for work.

He said they wanted the quarantine period reduced from 14 days and even the requirement waived in some cases like people coming for short-term work and for important tasks like investment and signing contracts.

Vietnam suspended all international flights to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus from March 25. Only Vietnamese citizens, foreigners with diplomatic passports, foreign experts or highly skilled workers are allowed the enter the country. Everyone has to be quarantined for 14 days on arrival.

Since the pandemic broke out 4,300 South Koreans have been granted permission to enter Vietnam for work.

South Korea was the fifth biggest investor in Vietnam in the first half of the year with nearly $545 million. South Korean businesses account for 30 percent of Vietnam’s total exports and provide more than 700,000 jobs.

After going over three months without community transmission of novel coronavirus, Vietnam is considering a resumption in commercial flights to some Asian destinations, including Seoul, from August.

 
 
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