Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam will adoptmultiple solutions to reach its target of 200 billion USD in total export valuefor the year, a year-on-year increase of 13 percent, officials said.

The target, which wouldmark a new record, if successful, is based on the country’s success withexports over the first eight months of this year.

Officials said the nationalexport value would have high growth potential this year because Vietnam hasadvantages in exporting certain key products, such as farming products,seafood, telephone components and garments. The most important aspect is thatlocal exporters must reform themselves and make use of good opportunities inexport markets around the world.

For example, in terms ofmarket structure, the United States has maintained its position as thelargest export market for Vietnamese goods. However, according to the Ministryof Industry and Trade, local exporters’ greatest challenge in exporting theirgoods to this market is technical barriers, with strict standards for qualityand food safety.

The barriers includeregulations on inspections for pesticide residue in rice and regulations ontesting for chemical and antibiotics residue in fisheries or catfish. Thesebarriers have had a considerable impact on Vietnamese farming and seafoodexports in recent years.

Therefore, the ministrysaid, for the long term, enterprises processing and producing goods for exportshould improve their competitiveness and the quality of their products to meetfood-safety standards to maintain and expand their export market inthe United States.

Meanwhile,ASEAN members and and China are expected to continue being Vietnam’s key exportmarkets. ASEAN has imported a large volume of Vietnamese goods, but Vietnam hasfaced difficulties in exporting its goods to this region due to the structuralsimilarity of the exported goods.

The ministry said localenterprises would need to improve their production and processing capacity aswell as their competitiveness in terms of quality and price to furtherpenetrate the ASEAN market. In addition, they must take advantage of theirgeographic distance to reduce transportation costs and delivery time.

For other important exportmarkets, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EU, expertssuggested that local exporters should ensure the quality of their goods,especially for the safety of consumers.

Minister of Industry andTrade Tran Tuan Anh also warned enterprises, departments of industry and tradeand their affiliated units to strictly implement major tasks and solutions onrolling out the socio-economic development plan and state budget plan for thisyear, while the ministry executes the government’s resolutions on improving theinvestment environment, competition and enterprise development.

In addition, minister urgedrelevant authorities to address the tax and fee problems for businesses to helpthem cut costs, ensure market development and promote efficient competition,leading to growth in production. In particular, the state agencies shouldpromote export market development and take advantage of free trade agreementsto address technical barriers in global markets.

Exports over eightmonths

At present, Vietnam hasexported its goods to some 200 countries and territories. Besides somehigh-potential markets such as the United States, the EU, Japanand the Republic of Korea, as well as China and the ASEAN, Vietnam hassuccessfully entered new export markets in Africa and Latin America.

The ministry’s statisticsshow that Vietnam’s export value in August reached 18.2 billion USD, bringing thetotal national export value over the past eight months to 133.5 billion USD, up15.7 percent over the same period last year.

The domestic enterprisesgained a year-on-year increase of 15.7 percent in export value, reaching 37.8billion USD, while foreign-invested enterprises achieved 95.7 billion USD in exportvalue (including crude oil exports), 18.9 percent higher than the same periodlast year.

Duong Duy Hung, Director ofthe Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Planning Department, said for agriculturaland seafood products, vegetables and fruits had the strongest growth in exportvalue, reaching 2.35 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 48 percent. The growthwas partly due to the efforts of expanding export markets for local vegetablesand fruit across the world.

Vietnamese fruits have beenmarketed in many countries with strict quality requirements. Of these,the United States has permitted the entry of Vietnam’s dragon fruit,rambutan, longan and litchi; the Republic of Korea, Japan and NewZealand have licensed imports of Vietnamese dragon fruit and mango; and Australia hasimported litchi, mango and dragon fruit.

According to the ministry’sImport and Export Department, during the first eight months of this year, themajor export markets have seen strong growth in export value. The Asian marketwas one of the traditional markets but gained a strong increase of 24.5 percentyear-on-year and accounted for 50.5 percent of total national export value.

Meanwhile, the export valueof Vietnam’s goods to European markets saw a year-on-year growth of 12 percent.Therefore, according to the Import and Export Department, local exportersshould take advantage of free trade agreements signed between Vietnam andits partners to promote exports to the European market in the future.-VNA