Exports up 19.4 percent in nine months

The country gained 35.2 billion USD from exports in the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 19.4 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

To the country’s nine-month export turnover, foreign-invested enterprises made up 14 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of almost 32 percent.

This was the first time that the export value of textile and apparels products surpassed that of crude oil, ranking first among the country’s export items with more than 5.8 billion USD. The country’s crude oil earnings also exceeded the 5 billion USD mark. They were followed by footwear, close to 3 billion USD; wooden products, 1.7 billion USD; and electronic appliances and computer components, over 1.5 billion USD.

Economic experts said that many months ago, textile and apparels products were forecast to take the first place in export revenues because of the reduction in crude oil exports due to limited sources for exploitation. Exports of textile and apparels continued its strong growth after the country joined the World Trade Organisation and export quotas to the US were removed.

Rubber earnings reached 933 million USD and are forecast to hit 1 billion USD by the end of this year. The value of farm and fisheries products continued to rise with rice generating almost 1.3 billion USD; coffee, almost 1.5 billion USD; and seafood, more than 2.7 billion USD.

The increases in farm products’ export value and volume were attributed to trade promotion activities, the improvement in product quality and rising world prices, said analysts.

Regarding export markets, exports to the EU rose by 28.5 percent, accounting for more than 19 percent of the country’s total exports; and to the US increased by 25 percent, or 20.5 percent of total exports.

Also in the past nine months of the year, almost 42.9 billion USD was laid out on imports, a year-on-year rise of almost 30 percent.

Imports chiefly included machinery and equipment that is yet to be manufactured in Viet Nam.

The ministry said that although exports increased, the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods has not been improved considerably as export goods were neither diversified nor of high economic value.

To maintain high growth in the remaining months of the year, the ministry asked domestic enterprises to boost production, expand outlets while paying due attention to the quality of export products, especially farm products and seafood.

Source: http://www.vnagency.com.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/215228/Default.aspx