he Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently held a dialogue on tax and customs policies with the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s firms in both in-person and virtual forms.

The dialogue provided an opportunity for State management agencies to share financial policies, especially those relating to tax and customs, with the business community. They also learnt about businesses’ difficulties so as to take corresponding actions to perfect administrative mechanisms and procedures.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha, the RoK is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with an accumulated registered capital of 74 billion USD in more than 9,200 projects. Korean firms employ nearly 1 million workers and contribute 30 percent of Vietnam’s export value.

Previously, the dialogue was held every year by the MoF in coordination with the RoK Embassy in Vietnam, but it was suspended in 2019 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

The MoF has implemented many solutions to support businesses in the context of the pandemic, such as delaying tax payments, land rent, as well as tax reduction for pandemic-hit enterprises and industries, thereby contributing to ensuing cash flow, restoring production and business as well as the recovery of supply chains, increasing import and export turnover and maintaining jobs for workers.

Ha emphasised that through the dialogue, the MoF wants to receive more ideas from RoK firms towards further perfecting policies and mechanisms to meet the requirements of the new period.

RoK Ambassador to Vietnam Park Noh-wan said the meeting is meaningful because tax matters are always complicated and have great impacts on production and business activities, thus attracting great attention of investors.

Song Won-yeong from the RoK Embassy called on the Vietnamese Government to expand the beneficiaries of incentives during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also suggested the Vietnamese side resume negotiations on advance pricing agreements (APA) which have been delayed and that a final decision should be made soon.

RoK businesses proposed that a consultation group should be set up with the participation of experts from the General Department of Taxation, the General Department of Customs, the RoK Embassy, the Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, KCCI and KOCHARM, which operates every three months./.