Mekong Delta region enjoys 3.5 billion USD trade surplus in six months
Total import-export revenue of the Mekong Delta region reached 10 billion USD in the first six months of 2017, a year-on-year rise of 11.2 percent, with 6.75 billion USD of exports.
Rice processing for export (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)
Can Tho (VNA) – Total import-export revenue of the Mekong Deltaregion reached 10 billion USD in the first six months of 2017, a year-on-yearrise of 11.2 percent, with 6.75 billion USD of exports, or a trade surplus of nearly3.5 billion USD.
According to the Steering Committee for the Southwest Region, theregion’s major currency earners included rice, vegetables and aquatic products.
The region’s leading export markets were China, Japan, the US and theRepublic of Korea.
In the first half of 2017, regional localities imported 3.18 billion USDworth of goods, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year,mostly buying fertiliser, pesticides, equipment and machinery.
The Mekong Delta region and Vietnam in general enjoyed a surge of 40percent in exports of vegetable and fruits, along with a of 14 percent inaquatic products.
However, both export volume and value of rice were equal to the sameperiod last year, with the top market China consuming 50 percent of total exportedrice.
Experts said that the region faces fierce competition from regionalcountries in agriculture and tough technical barriers, resulting in modestexport value. Meanwhile, vegetable and fruit exports failed to create abreakthrough due to their low value.
They also suggested that regional localities work to attract more foreigndirect investment (FDI) firms, especially large firms with high technology,thus creating high value export goods.
Currently, FDI attraction in the region is thelowest in the country. In the first reviewed months, regional localities lured 66FDI projects worth 1.7 billion USD, while the country’s total was 1,183projects with 11.8 billion USD.
Along with updatingtechnology to raise value and competitiveness of exported goods, the localitieswere advised to focus on developing the local business community andencouraging start-ups.
So far thisyear, the region saw 4,275 newly-established enterprises with total investmentof 30.81 trillion VND (1.35 billion USD), up 10.2 percent in the number of firmsbut down 22.7 percent in capital.-VNA
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Rice processing for export (Illustrative image. Source: VNA) 
