The outlook is becoming brighter for Vietnam ’s export activities as turnover reached 4.75 billion USD in July this year, a slight increase of 1 percent compared to June’s figures.

Earnings from textile and seafood exports increased remarkably while those from agricultural products, footwear and rattan handiworks inched up slightly, said the General Statistics Office.

This is considered to be an encouraging sign that heralds a possible bounce-back in exports for the country, especially against the backdrop of plunging world demand due to the global financial crisis.

However, the slight month-on-month rise of 1 percent in July export revenue can hardly reverse the downward trend of Vietnam ’s exports in the first seven months of 2009.

Statistics indicate that total export earnings so far topped 32.3 billion USD, down 13.4 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2008.

Rice is the only export staple to keep its rising trend. Vietnam exported 4.3 million tonnes of rice in seven months, fetching nearly 2 billion USD – up 46 percent in volume and four percent in value.

Meanwhile, crude oil, another of the main staples, experienced the deepest plunge, 45 percent, followed by rubber, 43 percent, coal, 18 percent, cashew nuts, 17.7 percent and coffee, 16 percent.

The office pointed out that while challenges to export activities remain, the country’s imports in July rose to the highest level within the last four months to 1.25 billion USD. The total import value of the first seven months reached 3.4 billion USD, equal to 10.5 percent of the export value.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade encourages local exporters to expand their product lines and create more goods with higher added value in order to achieve the target of earning 64.57 billion USD from exports and keeping the import surplus at between 10-12 billion USD for the year./.