The workshop of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Seafood Processing and Import-Export JSC in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Provinces in the southeastern regionposted impressive economic figures in 2018, proving themselves an importantgrowth engine of the whole country.
The Binh Duong People’s Committee reported thatthe local gross regional domestic product (GRDP) rose 9.01 percent, with a9.79-percent increase in the industrial production.
The province attracted nearly 1.4 billion USD offoreign direct investment (FDI) and 5.2 trillion VND (222.8 million USD) ofdomestic capital. Last year, its export revenue increased by 15.6 percent from2017. Exports by foreign invested businesses rose 17.5 percent to account for80.5 percent of the total overseas shipments.
As a result, Binh Duong recorded a trade surplusof over 4.8 billion USD, up more than 100 million USD from the previous year.The exports included wood, textile-garment, footwear, rubber, and ceramics.
Notably, wood export reached 4.48 billion USD bythe end of October, rising 8.5 percent year on year and making up almost halfof the country’s total export of the product.
[Infographics: Vietnam's GDP in 2018 expands 7.08%, highest since 2011]
Meanwhile, the neighbouring province of Dong Naiestimates its export turnover in 2018 at over 18.6 billion USD, up 11.7percent. Its trade surplus of around 2.6 billion USD surged over fourfold from2014, the first year Dong Nai enjoyed a trade surplus – 625 million USD.
About 980 million USD of FDI capital was pouredinto 106 new projects, and another 870 million USD was added to 92 existingones in Dong Nai, according to local authorities.
In Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, the economicgrowth rate reached 7.2 percent, contributed by the year-on-year expansion ofthe GRDP (6.43 percent), the industrial production value (8.72 percent), andexports (13.32 percent, excluding oil and gas).
Chairman of the Binh Duong People’s CommitteeTran Thanh Liem said in 2019, his province will push ahead with industrialdevelopment while paying more attention to the sectors with high added valueand less environmental impact like electricity, electronics, and automanufacturing.
At the same time, Dong Nai will continueprioritising investment attraction to supporting industries so as to raise therate of local components in products, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’sCommittee Tran Van Vinh said, noting that once the domestic supply of materialsis ensured, the trade surplus will rise even higher in line with export growthin the coming years.
Ba Ria – Vung Tau authorities said in the timeahead, they will promote the five economic pillars of industry, seaports,logistics, tourism and hi-tech agriculture, which in turn will help theprovince reduce its dependence on the oil and gas sector and the FDI capital. –VNA
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