Hanoi (VNA) - There remains an ample room for Vietnamese exports toAfrica, as the country accounts for only 0.6% of the continent's total import of 600 billion USD per year, according to the Ministry of Industry andTrade, given opportunities brought about by the African Continental Free TradeArea (AfCFTA) agreement.

The Asian-African Market Department said that trade between Vietnam and Africaincreased from 2.52 billion USD in 2010 to 5.5 billion USD in 2022.

Of the total, Vietnam’s exports were valued at more than 2.8billion USD, resulting in a trade surplus of 226.3 million USD.

Vietnam mainly shipped rice (568.6 million USD), phones andcomponent parts (355.6 million USD), computers and electronic products (210.4million USD), and footwear (141.8 million USD) to Africa.

Meanwhile, it bought cashew nuts (1.1 billion USD), metals (484.1 million USD), and wood and wood products (114.3 million USD) from thiscontinent.

In the coming time, to facilitate intra-bloc trade, Africannations will pour more capital into infrastructure facilities, thus opening upmore opportunities for Vietnamese goods to access more markets, including 15landlocked countries, in Africa. At present, Vietnam’s main export markets inthe region are major economies with seaports such as South Africa, Egypt andNigeria.

Countries around the world are planning to study, negotiateand sign international trade agreements, especially free trade agreements(FTAs), with the African Continental Free Trade Area.

This will help them save time negotiating with individualcountries or regions (Africa currently has 55 countries divided into eight economicregions). In fact, African countries have quite similar production structures,mainly primary products such as crude oil, raw agricultural products, minerals,and precious metals, according to the ministry.

Even if the AfCFTA agreement takes effect across the region,the continent still cannot guarantee the supply of machinery, equipment, rice,textiles, footwear, and processed aquatic products; and still has to depend onimports from foreign countries.

Therefore, there remains huge potential for Vietnam toexport its key commodities such as rice, coffee, garment and textiles,footwear, and aquatic products to Africa.

Vietnam can increase its exports of textile, leather andfootwear products to Africa by promoting competitive advantages such as lowlabour costs, good sewing techniques, and high quality products, if the nationor the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) negotiates a tradeagreement with the AfCFTA, the ministry said.

The AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area bringingtogether the 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and eight RegionalEconomic Communities (RECs). The overall mandate of the AfCFTA is to create asingle continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and acombined GDP of approximately 3.4 trillion USD./.