주요국의 대베트남 진출전략과 시사점 (Overseas Expansion Strategy of Major Countries’ Firms Toward Viet Nam and the Implications for Korea)

Korean Abstract: 글로벌 금융위기를 거치면서 베트남은 성장세의 둔화를 경험했다. 최근 FDI 유입 증가, 양자·다자 FTA의 확대 체결, 아세안경제공동체(AEC) 출범 등 대외경제 환경이 우호적으로 조성되면서 베트남의 성장 잠재력이 주목을 받고 있다. 또한 정치적 안정과 풍부한 저임 노동력, 그리고 1억에 육박하는 인구규모 등 긍정적인 대내여건의 개선은 베트남에 대한 주요 투자국의 관심을 증가시켰고, FDI 유입 또한 크게 증가했다. 특히 2015년에는 사상최대인 145억 달러의 FDI가 유입되었고, 경제성장률은 글로벌 금융위기 이전 수준인 6.68%를 기록했다. 반면에 부정부패, 숙련인력 부족, 국영기업 비효율 등의 부정적인 요소가 상존하고 있다는 점을 고려할 때, 베트남의 사업환경이 긍정적인 것만도 아니다. 국가별 비즈니스 환경을 비교분석하는 Doing Business 평가는 베트남의 비즈니스 환경을 189개국 중에서 90위권 수준으로 평가했다. 다만 최근 들어 투자법 및 노동법의 개정을 통해 투자절차 및 인력고용상의 편의를 개선하면서 베트남의 투자환경이 긍정적으로 변화하고 있다는 점에 주목해야 한다. 따라서 한국기업도 베트남을 전략적인 생산기지로 채택하고 대동남아 투자액의 40% 이상을 투자했다. 향후 베트남에서 주요 투자국과 한국 기업간 경쟁심화가 예상되므로 한국의 대베트남 투자전략에 대한 재점검이 필요한 시점이다. 주요 투자국인 미국과 일본의 대베트남 투자전략 사례를 살펴보고 우리기업에 맞는 투자전략을 재정립할 필요가 있다. English Abstract: Vietnam has taken the spotlight as a representative low-wage production base in Southeast Asia. Recently, very high estimates were made regarding Vietnam’s growth potential due to the favorable economic conditions such as stable inflation, robust economic growth, increase in FDI inflow, multi/bilateral FTAs, AEC(ASEAN Economic Community) and so on. As abundant low-wage workers, political stability, large scale population became positive factors attracting investment to Vietnam, FDI inflow to Vietnam is increasing rapidly. Recently, with Korean companies eyeing Vietnam as a strategic production base, Vietnam has emerged as a major investment destination which accounted for 40% of Korea’s investment to Southeast Asia. Therefore, the time has come to review Korea’s investment strategy to Vietnam, considering the country’s increasing strategic importance. That requires us to make reference to cases of investment strategies of the major investors such as USA and Japan, and revise the investment strategy to suit Korean Companies. Although the Vietnamese economy has been sluggish during the global finance crisis, internal and external economic conditions such as inflation, trade, investment, and industrial structure have improved and economic growth rate returned to the pre-crisis level (6.68%) in 2015. Recent robust economic growth of Vietnam is due to the surge of FDI inflow, which reached an all time high of 14.5 billion USD. In terms of trade, China and USA account for the biggest shares in Vietnam’s trade; yet as the amount of trade between Korea and Vietnam increased, Korea also emerged as the 4th largest export and 2nd largest import destination of Vietnam. Vietnam’s potential as a global production base will only get bigger due to recent favorable internal and external economic condition, but there are a few negative factors as well; such as corruption, lack of skilled workers, and inefficiency of SOE (State Owned Enterprises). According to the Doing Business Index of the World Bank Group, which analyzes the business environment across economies, Vietnam ranked 90th out of 189 economies. Among 10 indicators for business environment analysis, Vietnam scored relatively high in dealing with construction permits, registering property, and acquisition of credit; but low in payment of taxes, protecting minority investors and resolving insolvency. Recently, investment environment of Vietnam has become more favorable due to improvement in FDI and employment terms by the revision of foreign investment laws and labor regulations.