Increasing trade value is due to some Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) enterprises to expand production. In which, the project of Samsung Display has contributed significantly to export in the remaining months of 2017, which helped export value to increase proportionally.
According to the Agency of Foreign Trade (Ministry of Industry & Trade), in the first 10 months, FDI enterprises has exported goods and products with value of 125.5 billion USD, up 22.1% compared to the same period of last year. The spotlight of Vietnam’s export in the first 10 months are export of domestic enterprises reached 48.2 billion USD, up 17.2% compared to the same period of 2016. This is a remarkable achievement in the context of the slow rate of improvement in this sector in recent years, or even trade deficit in some period.
In order for export to grow sustainably, at present, Vietnam export focuses on growing in quantity, which has a certain limit to grow. However, this cannot be a long term solution, as grow in quantity will not lead to sustainable development. In long term, Vietnam need to focus on stabilizing production and increasing added value. Besides, export activities should go in the direction of increasing in quality and the objective of socio-economic development in poor areas, as well as raising the living standard of citizens.
Rice is also a positive note when the exported amount after 10 months reached 5.05 million tons with 2.25 billion USD, up 22.3% in term of quantity and 21.1% in term of value compared to the same period of 2016. Besides, in this year, Vietnam has signed a series of export contracts with traditional markets such as Philippines, China and Bangladesh, which helped this product to overcome the trade deficit of last year and experienced a strong increase in export in this year.
Specifically, in Malaysia, Vietnamese companies have signed contract of exporting 150,000 tons; in Malaysia, Vietnamese companies have signed contract of exporting 250,000 tons; in Philippines, Vietnamese companies have signed contract of exporting 175,000 tons. New markets with high potential such as Australia and some West Asian countries also show significant increase in rice export. With positive results from rice export contracts in the remaining months of 2017, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has increased the rice export target from 5.2 million tons to 5.6 million tons, while at present, Vietnam has achieved 82% of the plan for 2017.
With a strong momentum of products in agro – forestry – fisheries, export of minerals and resources also increased 29.7%, while industrial processing and manufacturing also increased 21.9% compared to the same period of last year.
The Ministry of Industry & Trade forecasted that trade value of Vietnam in 2017 may reach the 210 billion USD mark, up 18.9% compared to the same period of last year. This is a feasible target considering the improvement of global trade, which is an important factor influencing domestic production, as well as Vietnam’s export activities.
