By Khanh Vu and Kyu-seok Shim
HANOI/SEOUL, April 22 (Reuters) – Vietnam and South Korea’s leaders agreed to boost cooperation in nuclear energy and high-tech at a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday, as the two countries seek to strengthen supply chains amid global trade turmoil.
In their second meeting since August, Vietnam’s top leader To Lam and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attended the signing in Hanoi of 12 non-binding documents, including on energy, technology and security cooperation. The partners agreed to studying the possibility of cooperation for a nuclear power plant development and financing.
Vietnam is seeking a partner to develop a nuclear power plant with a planned capacity of 2 to 3.2 gigawatts by 2035, after Japan withdrew from the project because it deemed the timeframe too tight.
Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy has at times struggled to meet growing power demand as its industrial base expands. South Korea is the largest investor in Vietnam, with multiple Korean multinationals having large manufacturing operations in the country.
The two sides agreed to “support Vietnamese businesses in joining South Korea’s production, supply and distribution chains, contributing to the development of an independent and self-reliant economy,” Lam said after the meeting.
“We agreed to work more closely together to strengthen energy security and stabilize supply chains,” said Lee, who travelled with a large business delegation to Vietnam after visiting India.
Vietnam, whose exports go mostly to the United States, has been under pressure from Washington to reduce its dependence on Chinese electronic parts, with the White House in recent months stepping up scrutiny of whether Chinese goods are being routed through Vietnam to avoid U.S. tariffs.
The leaders also reaffirmed a goal to boost bilateral trade flows to $150 billion by 2030, from $89.5 billion last year, according to the Vietnamese government.
VIETNAM WANTS CHIPS, AI INVESTMENT
A major exporter of phones and other electronic goods, Vietnam is keen to pivot to more sophisticated technologies.
Samsung, which is Vietnam’s biggest foreign corporate investor with more than $20 billion mostly in electronic goods plants, has been in talks with Vietnamese authorities for years about a possible back-end semiconductor factory, with talks having progressed of late, multiple sources familiar with the discussions have said.
Intel, Amkor and other multinationals have large back-end chip plants in Vietnam, focusing on labour-intensive assembling, testing and packaging of semiconductors.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi, Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim in Seoul; Writing by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Alex Richardson)
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