Shrimp processed for export (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecast thatVietnam’s total export revenue will grow 10-12 percent to hit a record of 239billion USD for the whole year 2018, much higher than the set target of 214billion USD.
Deputy head of the ministry’s Foreign Trade Agency Tran Thanh Hai, shipments ofkey products such as telephones and spare parts, garment and textiles,electronics, computers and spare parts, equipment and footwear duringJanuary-October continued to rise over the same time last year.
In stark contrast, steep decline was seen in the export of crude oil, whichfell 24.8 percent year on year to 1.8 billion USD.
Vietnam raked in some 200.3 billion USD from exports in the period, or 14.2percent higher than the amount earned in the same time in 2017. Of the totalamount, 56.82 billion USD was contributed by domestic sector and 143.45 billionUSD by foreign-invested sector.
The US remained the largest importer of Vietnam when it spent 39.17 billion USDpurchasing products from the Southeast Asian country (up 13.4 percent year-on-year),followed by the EU with 34.6 billion USD (increasing 9 percent), China with33.1 billion USD (growing 25.1 percent), ASEAN with 20.4 billion USD (expanding13 percent), and Japan with 15.26 billion USD (rising 10.2 percent).
Hai said in the period, Vietnam continued to promote exports to its traditionalmarkets while developing new markets by capitalising on the free tradeagreements (FTAs) which have taken effect or are under negotiations.
If local firms know how to take full advantage of the FTAs, this will serve asa catalyst to bolster exports, he said, adding that improvement in businessclimate has given momentum to the expansion of export enterprises.
Also in the ten-month period, Vietnam splashed out 193.84 billion USD onimports, a year-on-year increase of 11.8 percent. Most of the purchasedproducts were electronic products, computers and spare parts, equipment,telephones and spare parts, steel and petrol.
Experts said domestic production has shown signs of strong recovery as the rateof imports that need to be controlled only accounted for 6.5 percent of thetotal import revenue.
During January-October, the country enjoyed a trade surplus of 6.4 billion USD,with a trade deficit of 20.7 billion USD from the domestic sector, and 27.1billion USD in trade surplus from the foreign-invested sector.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement, which will take effect in theend of this year, have made Vietnam more attractive to foreign-directinvestment. Domestic investment, sparked by business confidence, favourablebusiness environment, stable monetary policy, is forecast to continueincreasing to generate new production capacity together with foreign investment.
Furthermore, Vietnamese firms are more confident to bolster shrimp and tra fishexports to the US after the country decided to reduce anti-dumping tariffs onthe products.
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Do Thang Hai said that to promote exportsin the last two months of the year, the ministry will keep a close watch on theworld’s economic developments, particularly the escalating US-China trade war,to pen rational measures to enhance shipments and prevent trade and originfrauds.
Production of goods meeting quality and food safety standards as well asfitting the taste of export markets will be prioritised, Hai stressed.
On the other hand, the ministry will work to give timely forecast and warningover the safeguard measures imposed on Vietnamese products while removingbottlenecks for enterprises to branch out export markets.
Besides, it will pay due attention to increasing Vietnam’s market share intraditional markets and creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese productsto gain foothold in new markets.
Accelerating negotiation, signing and ratification of free trade deals withforeign countries and implementing Vietnam’s integration commitments should beplaced at the first line of the measures, he said. -VNA
VNA
