Asean has become a target market for Korea investment

A rendering of the Thu Thiem complex that will be built by Lotte Engineering & Construction in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. [LOTTE ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION]

Retailers and construction companies are putting more emphasis on Asean markets as the pandemic eases.

Lotte Engineering & Construction is working on a $900 million construction project to build a leisure and residential complex in Ho Chi Minh City, with construction starting next year. The complex will be built at the city's Thu Thiem business hub and have hotels and shopping malls.

Vietnam is a big market for the company, and it has been running a Lotteland subsidiary to spearhead home development projects in the country.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction received a $1.8 billion contract to build a coal-fired plant in Vietnam in June last year. It is currently under construction. The company is also actively joining other plant-related projects abroad. Since December last year, it has been participating in the front-end engineering design of CAP 2 — PKG A, a petrochemical complex to be built in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Retail companies are also active in the region.

Lotte Duty Free opened a duty-free location in Sydney, Australia, in March. The establishment of new overseas branches has been halted since June 2020, but the company is now getting more active overseas again.

Lotte Shopping opened a new Lotte March branch in Nha Trang, Vietnam in April, taking its total Vietnam locations to 15. It also operates stores in Indonesia, with a total of 49 branches there.

Companies are also eyeing Asean countries for manufacturing sites.

CJ CheilJedang finished building a food manufacturing plant in Long An, Vietnam, in February, and plans to invest another 100 billion won to add capacity at the plant. The company says the country is an optimal location because of its proximity to China, Japan, Europe, Australia and other Southeast Asian countries — markets that are very important to the company. Its food product sales in China rose 15 percent on year in the first quarter and 31 percent in Japan.

Amorepacific is looking for a Southeast Asian country in which to build a manufacturing plant, with countries such as Vietnam being named a possibilities. It has a manufacturing plant in Shanghai, which it has been operating since 2014.

Investments are also coming in the corporate sector. Shinsegae's Signite Partners invested in Grab, a Singapore-based ride-sharing company, in February last year. The investment amount and stake wasn't disclosed, but Signite Partners said it plans to shore up its global investments in the future.
KT&G's Lil heat-not-burn e-cigarette is exported to 22 countries, including Japan and Malaysia. Its traditional cigarettes such as Esse are also exported to over 70 countries, including Indonesia and China. Some 11.5 billion sticks were sold abroad in the first quarter, up 43.8 percent on year, due to exports recovering in Asia Pacific markets.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]