Exports grow beyond expectation

Vietnam’s exports in the first 10 months of the year reached US$173.7 billion, an increase of 20.7 percent compared to a year ago, resulting in a trade surplus of US$1.23 billion.

Strong export growth

Duong Phuong Thao, deputy director of the Agency of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said strong export growth this year is attributed to the production expansion of foreign-invested businesses. This sector’s export turnover reached US$125.5 billion in the first 10 months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 22.1 percent.

Export turnover of the domestic economic sector also totaled US$48.2 billion, up 17.2 percent compared to a year ago. This is unusual given the slow rate of improvement in this sector in recent years, even negative growth in some periods. In the domestic sector, agro-forestry and fishery exports created a breakthrough in the first 10 months of the year, reaching US$29.76 billion, an increase of 12.7 percent compared to a year ago.

Rice exports reached 5.05 million tonnes for US$2.25 billion, an increase of 22.3 percent in volume and 21.1 percent in value compared to the same period last year. Vietnam has signed a series of rice export contracts this year with the Philippines, China and Bangladesh, contributing to export growth.

In addition, export turnover of minerals and resources also increased by 29.7 percent, while the manufacturing and processing sector saw export growth of 21.9 percent compared to a year ago.

Surge of fruit, veg imports

Vietnam’s imports in the first 10 months of the year reached US$172.5 billion, an increase of 22 percent compared to the same period last year. Thao said many large groups and businesses, such as Samsung, Vietnam Electricity and Viettel have strengthened imports of machinery and equipment to serve their operations in the early months of the year, leading to a strong increase in import turnover. However, their projects’ completion has contributed to reducing pressure on imports in the remaining months of the year.

Trade experts say the import turnover of some items needs to be limited. These include steel, fruit and vegetables, which strongly increased in the first 10 months of the year. While steel imports increased by 13.9 percent, fruit and vegetables imports surged 74 percent.

Vietnam’s total export turnover is expected to reach about US$200.