What can Vietnam learn from Korea?

Mirror of Korean sports

At the Sports Economy Forum 2024 held on October 17, one of the main topics discussed was the connection between economy, sports and their impact on the localities where major sporting events are hosted and organized.

Bringing along experience in organizing the 1988 Olympics and the 2002 World Cup, Mr. Oh Yeong-woo, former Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports of Korea, said that major sporting events such as the Olympics, World Cup or ASIAD are very important to the development of this country.

Mr. Oh Yeong-woo shares the value of major sports tournaments to the Korean economy

"In addition to economic efficiency, sports events also play a very important tangible and intangible role in national development, such as helping to enhance the national brand, having a positive economic impact, increasing the value of the national brand and creating many diverse effects.

More specifically, these sporting events are effective in enhancing national competitiveness, promoting integration and enhancing national pride," Mr. Oh Yeong-woo shared at the forum.

Recognizing the importance of these events, South Korea seized the opportunity to host, and then determined to successfully organize major sporting events such as the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 2002 World Cup (co-hosted with Japan), the 2014 ASIAD, or more recently the 2018 Winter Olympics, the 2019 World Swimming Championships...

The 1988 Olympics not only brought many economic but also cultural effects to the development of Seoul city. Before the 1988 Olympics, the city's population was only about 8.6 million people, but immediately after the event, this number increased to 10.5 million people, turning Seoul into a metropolis.

After the resounding success of the 1988 Olympics, Korea understood how effective world-class sporting events were, which was also the reason why they were determined to successfully host the world's top football event, the 2002 World Cup.

South Korea (red shirt) took off after the 2002 World Cup

That year's football festival brought in 6.6 billion USD to Korea, of which tourism and consumption benefited the most, reaching more than 3 billion USD, of which 1.5 billion USD came from infrastructure development, and 1.5 billion USD came from brand value and improving national image.

Remember that this figure of 6.6 billion USD was from more than 20 years ago, if calculated at the present time, it is worth approximately 35 billion USD.

Economic benefits, political status, and investment attraction from hosting sports tournaments have prompted countries to compete to host major tournaments. Most recently, Qatar has made a splash by successfully hosting the 2022 World Cup. Also in West Asia, Saudi Arabia is racing to host the 2028 World Cup, hoping to elevate its national image.

What can Vietnamese sports learn?

In relation to Vietnam, our country has hosted two major regional events: SEA Games 22 (2003) and more recently SEA Games 31 (2022).

Mr. Do Dinh Hong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports shared: "Its influence is not only in the sports industry but also the Vietnamese people are very proud that we were able to organize this event. All fields and professions have received positive impacts from this event.

In fact, after two SEA Games, we can see the level of organizing sports events, promoting the image and people of Vietnam internationally."

Director of Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Dinh Hong

Vietnam is the destination of many major sporting events. The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has coordinated with localities to host the U.17, U.20 and U.23 Asian qualifiers within just 1 year. Or in billiards, the Hanoi Open tournament gathers many talented players and this playground is widely spread in the global billiards fan community.

However, the organization of sporting events still needs to be facilitated and have specific mechanisms to encourage businesses to participate in investment.

"To attract investors, sports-related projects will be exempted from land and water surface tax for 10 years, then reduced by 50% in the following years.

Second, corporate income tax is only applied at 5% but will be exempted from the entire 5% tax in the first 4 years, the next 9 years will be applied at 50%. From these, I hope that it can be applied nationwide," Mr. Do Dinh Hong affirmed.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/quang-ba-hinh-anh-dat-nuoc-nho-the-thao-viet-nam-hoc-duoc-gi-tu-han-quoc-185241017185110638.htm