THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Vietnam poised for record trade surplus in 2019

Vietnam poised for record trade surplus in 2019

Vietnam’s trade value this year is estimated to touch US$500 billion, bucking the trend of a global economic slowdown and sluggish exports.

 

Vietnam hit the US$400 billion threshold two years ago, a new milestone for the country that has been striving to improve its business climate and enhance international integration.
This was a very impressive result in the context that many countries were seeing a slowdown in trade, reflecting the sustainable growth of international trade in Vietnam’s economic structure, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said in an interview with congthuong.vn online newspaper.
Tuan Anh also said that with an average increase of 13 per cent per year in recent years, Vietnam was among the world’s top 30 countries in terms of trade growth.
Latest updates of Vietnam Customs showed that the country also posted a record trade surplus of nearly $11 billion in the January- November period, a record high.
The country had been running a trade surplus since 2016, well ahead of the government’s plan to achieve trade balance in 2020.
He said the government’s efforts in improving the business climate created an impetus to increase the development of businesses, especially private firms, and attract foreign investment, which helped leverage the country’s production capacity and participate in the global production chain.
Firms also knew better how to grasp opportunities provided by free trade agreements (FTAs), he said, adding that in recent years, Vietnam had negotiated and signed 16 FTAs, 12 of which have already come into force.
The ministry’s statistics showed that the trade revenue which used FTAs’ preferential certificate of origins accounted for 38 per cent of the country’s total exports to FTA partner countries.
Besides advantages, there were challenges, Anh said. The trade disputes between big economies posed uncertainties to global trade.
Priority would be given to enhance production and integration capacity of the economy, he said. Reforms would continue to be hastened following commitments to FTAs to create firms ground for the country’s growth, he added.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said that a close watch would be kept on the developments of the US-China trade war to raise measures to boost exports.
He said the prevention of trade fraud related to the origin of goods must also be enhanced, adding that improving product quality would also be important to meet the requirements of import markets.
In addition, forecasts and warnings on trade remedies applied to Vietnam’s export products would be a focus, he said.
Customs statistics showed that Vietnam had exported goods worth $241.65 billion in January-November, while it imported $230.71 billion in the period.
The country’s trade revenue reached $480.17 billion in 2018.

 

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