Vietnam exported 194.3 billion USD worth of products in the first nine months of the year. (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam exported 194.3 billion USD worth of products in the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year surge of 8.2 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on September 30.
According to the ministry, 30.7 percent of the export turnover was contributed by the domestic economic sector, and 69.3 percent by the foreign-invested sector.
The US remained the largest importer of Vietnam as it splashed out 44.9 billion USD on purchasing Vietnamese goods, followed by the EU (31.1 billion USD), ASEAN (19.4 billion USD), Japan (15.1 billion USD), and the Republic of Korea (14.5 billion USD).
During the period, 26 products achieved an export turnover of more than 1 billion USD, with five of them posting more than 10 billion USD in export value.
To be more specific, shipments of telephones and components fetched 38.6 billion USD; electronic products, computers and spare parts, 25.4 billion USD; garment and textiles, 24.8 billion USD; footwear, 13.3 billion USD; and machines, equipment and spare parts, 12.9 billion USD. They all recorded good growth of 5.1 percent, 16.9 percent, 10.4 percent, 13.5 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.
On contrast, exports of agro-fishery products experienced a substantial drop, with the sharpest fall seen in shipments of coffee (20.7 percent) and rice (9.7 percent).
Experts said that shipments of agricultural products and seafood depended much on the Chinese market, and once the Chinese Government tightened import standards, Vietnamese exporters would find it hard to bring their products to this market. Meanwhile, local firms maintained their export advantage in the US, the EU, the Republic of Korea and Japan, with most of the exports being electronic products, garment-textiles, and footwear.
During the nine-month period, domestic firms spent 78.97 billion USD on imports, a year-on-year surge of 14 percent as compared to 109.4 billion USD of the foreign-invested sector.
The industry ministry said that all enterprises increased imports to serve their production targets for the whole year.
“Unlike previous years, industrial products were the main motive for export growth of domestic firms”, a representative from the ministry said.
(Photo: VietnamPlus)
Vietnam gained a trade surplus of 1.59 billion USD in the first half of this year, according to the General Department of Customs.
During the six months of the year, Vietnam’s total export value reached 122.53 billion USD, a year on year increase of 7.2 per cent.
The growth in export value in the first six months was mainly due to the development of exports in the processing and manufacturing sector that had an export value of 102.2 billion USD, up 9.1 percent over the same period of 2018.
Particularly, the country posted a positive trade surplus of over 1 billion USD with ten member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) seven months after the trade deal came into effect in Vietnam on January 14 this year.
The country’s export turnover with CPTPP countries amounted to 15.4 percent of Vietnam’s total figure. CPTPP economies accounted for six of the 27 export markets with export value exceeding 1 billion USD, a sizable contribution in comparison to other FTA deals the country has signed.
While appearing modest at 7.5 percent, Vietnam’s export turnover growth was accompanied with a trade surplus with CPTPP economies, in stark contrast to the large deficit the country experienced when trade deals took effect with China in 1991, Thailand in 1995 and the Republic of Korea in 2018.
Exports to markets such as Japan, Canada and Mexico reported significant gains compared to the same period last year with Japan topping the chart at 1.01 billion USD, Canada at 546 million USD and Mexico at 290 million USD. At the same time, imports from Mexico decreased by 659 million USD, Singapore by 490 million USD and Malaysia by 219 million USD. It has helped the country turn a positive trade balance even posting a trade surplus with Japan for the very first time.
The figures indicated Vietnamese businesses were taking advantage of lowered tariffs and trade opportunities that come with the trade deal. Stronger demand for Vietnamese agricultural products from CPTPP economies was expected to help Vietnamese exporters to offset some of the adverse effects caused by China’s recent policy to reduce imports in the future.
On the other hand, measures must be taken to further boost the country’s exports as Vietnam saw a decline in exports to markets such as Australia and Malaysia and growing trade deficits with Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand./.
