Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s foreign trade turnover surpassed the 500-billion-USD mark for the first time at the end of 2019, putting the country’s total export-import value at close to 4 trillion USD almost over the last two decades, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam posted a trade surplus of 10.94 billion USD.

The trade of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises expanded 3.2 percent this year to 297.87 billion USD while that of domestic firms rose by 15.1 percent, marking the three consecutive year this sector reporting growth of over 10 percent.

Exceeding 500-billion-USD mark

Before 2001, Vietnam’s foreign trade maintained at below 30 billion USD. The figure surged past 100 billion USD after the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2006, the department said in a statistics report.

The data showed that Vietnam’s import-export value had increased 170 times compared to the time it embarked on the renewal process (1986), 37 times over the value when it joined ASEAN (1995) and five times over the year it was admitted to the WTO (2007).

The WTO landmark milestone ushered in a new chapter for Vietnam which has been striving to make the most of every international cooperation and investment opportunity and chance of technology transfer to boost the economy.

Vietnam has continued making a stride in economics over the next decade as foreign trade grew to 200 billion USD in 2011, 300 billion USD in 2015, 400 billion USD in 2017 and 500 billion USD this year. This had helped the country remain for long in the world’s Top 30 largest importers and exporters and rank third in ASEAN, after Singapore and Thailand, the report said.

The country has jumped on the global trade map, from 50th in exports and 44th in imports in 2006 to 26th in exports and 23rd in imports in 2018.

In 2019, 32 products witnessed turnover of more than 1 billion USD, and six sectors reached a turnover of over 10 billion USD, accounting for nearly 93 percent of the total.

Reducing trade deficit

Vietnam had been running a negative trade balance for years before 2011, with trade deficit reaching a record high of 18.02 billion USD in 2008.

Since 2012, the country repeatedly reported trade surpluses (except for 2015), which mounted to 6.83 billion USD in 2018 and 10.94 billion USD this year.

China, the US and Japan had remained as Vietnams’s largest trade partners before 2013; after the year, the Republic of Korea replaced Japan in the third place.

During the first 11 months of 2019, two-way trade between Vietnam and China hit 105.8 billion USD, up 8.7 percent from the same period last year, making it Vietnam’s biggest trade partners, followed by the US whose trade with Vietnam surged 24.5 percent to 68.7 billion USD.

The RoK came third with trade exchange amounting 61.4 billion USD, up 1.8 percent while Japan ranked fourth with 36.3 billion USD, up 4.6 percent.

In a meeting earlier this week, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc announced Vietnam aims to achieve 300 billion USD in export turnover for 2020.

He asked ministries and localities to work closely to attain the fifth-year trade surplus for the country and urged Vietnamese businesses to work with foreign invested enterprises for mutual benefits, while continuing to defend and protect Vietnamese goods, protect key products and avoid litigation from foreign trade.

The Prime Minister also suggested fighting trade fraud, smuggling and handling violations of intellectual property rights, creating a fair, open and transparent business environment and reducing import and export costs of commodities./.

VNA