The Ministry of Industry and Trade(MoIT) will take bolder measures to keep the country's trade deficit inthe second quarter equivalent to roughly 20 percent of export earningsin the period, down roughly 3.1 percent over the rate in the firstquarter, according to the MoIT's Planning Department.
MoIT deputy minister Nguyen Thanh Bien said the ministry wouldscrutinise ineffective projects to reduce imports. Close supervision onthe imports of raw materials and equipment of projects that use capitalfrom the State's budget would be among the ministry's measures tocontrol the trade deficit, Bien said.
The ministry will also carefully review import tax incentive policies,especially in the construction industry, to further cut imports.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), controls over thetrade deficit have proved ineffective as products subject to importcontrols including seafood, fruit and vegetables, steel, gems andprecious metal increased by 59 percent in the past four months.
Goods subject to import limitations, such as consumer goods,motorbikes and fully assembled under-nine seat cars also rose 41 percentin the period.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit control has been efficient only inreducing the import of luxury consumer goods and machinery and equipmentthat the country can manufacture, said Bien.
Besides joining hands with other relevant bodies to encourage domesticindustries to use Vietnam-made materials and equipment, the ministrysaid it could impose more tariff and non-tariff measures to controlimports if necessary.
Bien said the ministry would also speed up the signing of multilateraland bilateral agreements and the establishment of free trade areas toboost exports.
According to the GSO, the January-April trade deficit reached 4.65billion USD, or more than 23 percent of the export earnings in theperiod due to an increase in both import volume and price.
Although the trade deficit remained high and exceeded the 20 percentrate of export earnings targeted by the National Assembly, there arestill optimistic signs as imports have fallen, especially in the secondhalf of April.
April's trade deficit fell to 1.16 billion USD against the GSO'sinitial prediction of 1.25 billion USD because both export and importdecreased in turnover. April's deficit was equal to March's figure andlower than 1.33 billion USD in February.
In the second half of April, export turnover reached more than 2.7billion USD while imports tended to fall slightly at nearly 3.01 billionUSD, or 46 percent of the month's import spending.
In April, export turnover reached over 5.33 billion USD, down 4.6percent from the previous month and import spending was nearly 6.5billion USD, falling 3.7 percent month-on-month.
The GSO estimated that the gap between export and import growth inApril was shortened to five times from 25 times of the first quarter./.
MoIT deputy minister Nguyen Thanh Bien said the ministry wouldscrutinise ineffective projects to reduce imports. Close supervision onthe imports of raw materials and equipment of projects that use capitalfrom the State's budget would be among the ministry's measures tocontrol the trade deficit, Bien said.
The ministry will also carefully review import tax incentive policies,especially in the construction industry, to further cut imports.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), controls over thetrade deficit have proved ineffective as products subject to importcontrols including seafood, fruit and vegetables, steel, gems andprecious metal increased by 59 percent in the past four months.
Goods subject to import limitations, such as consumer goods,motorbikes and fully assembled under-nine seat cars also rose 41 percentin the period.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit control has been efficient only inreducing the import of luxury consumer goods and machinery and equipmentthat the country can manufacture, said Bien.
Besides joining hands with other relevant bodies to encourage domesticindustries to use Vietnam-made materials and equipment, the ministrysaid it could impose more tariff and non-tariff measures to controlimports if necessary.
Bien said the ministry would also speed up the signing of multilateraland bilateral agreements and the establishment of free trade areas toboost exports.
According to the GSO, the January-April trade deficit reached 4.65billion USD, or more than 23 percent of the export earnings in theperiod due to an increase in both import volume and price.
Although the trade deficit remained high and exceeded the 20 percentrate of export earnings targeted by the National Assembly, there arestill optimistic signs as imports have fallen, especially in the secondhalf of April.
April's trade deficit fell to 1.16 billion USD against the GSO'sinitial prediction of 1.25 billion USD because both export and importdecreased in turnover. April's deficit was equal to March's figure andlower than 1.33 billion USD in February.
In the second half of April, export turnover reached more than 2.7billion USD while imports tended to fall slightly at nearly 3.01 billionUSD, or 46 percent of the month's import spending.
In April, export turnover reached over 5.33 billion USD, down 4.6percent from the previous month and import spending was nearly 6.5billion USD, falling 3.7 percent month-on-month.
The GSO estimated that the gap between export and import growth inApril was shortened to five times from 25 times of the first quarter./.
