Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed a decision to ratify animport/export strategy for the period 2011-20 with an orientationtowards 2030.
Under the strategy specified inDecision 2471/QD-TTg, the country's total exports by 2020 are expectedto increase by three times against an export value of 71 billion USD in2010, ensuring balanced trade.
The Prime Ministerhas also instructed local industries to restructure export commoditiestowards industrialisation and modernisation, improving the exportproportion of high value- added products, high-tech goods andenvironmentally friendly products.
The strategyfocuses on four commodity groups: fuel and minerals, agro-forestry andseafood products, processing and manufacturing items and new andhighvalue-added products.
The strategy also sets outspecific targets. The annual export growth rate will average 12 percentfrom 2011-15, 11 percent from 2016-20 and 10 percent from 2021-30.
The trade deficit will be reduced to less than 10 percent of the totalexport turnover by 2015 and reach a trade balance by 2020 towards atrade surplus from 2021-30.
The Prime Minister alsoasked industries to tighten imports in a bid to narrow the tradedeficit. To do this, it is essential to bolster production and developfuels, raw materials and accessories, as well support industries.
Machinery and high-tech equipment will continue to be imported to saveenergy and protect the environment and other import markets should bediversified to guarantee reasonable prices in order to reduce the tradedeficit.
According to the Ministry of Industry andTrade, Vietnam expects to reach an export revenue of 108.8 billion USDthis year, up 13 percent from last year. The import value is predictedat 121.8 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 15.2 percent, leavingthe trade deficit 13 billion USD.
Last year,Vietnam's trade deficit was the lowest in the past 10 years, reachingjust over 9.5 billion USD, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 23 percent –half of the Government's target of 18 percent for the whole financialyear, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
It has been attributed to the rising export value of nearly 96.26billion USD last year, a year-on-year increase of 33.3 percent – thehighest level since 1995 and tripling the National Assembly's target of10 percent.
Head of the GSO's Trade Department LeMinh Thuy attributed the high export value last year to businessexpansion by a number of FDI enterprises.
"In 2011,the proportion of industrial and mineral products exported rose 4percent year-on-year and accounted for 35.2 percent of total exportvalue," Thuy said. /.