Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese exporters need toensure their capacity and maintain existing export markets, typicallyAsian and African outlets, amid many challenges in 2023, a seniortrade official has said. 

Thesechallenges included a world economic recession, competitionamong major big economies, trade protectionism, inflation and risinginterest rates, Lê Hoang Oanh, Director of the Asia-Africa MarketDepartment under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said.

To do so, firms must make sure that their products meet the qualityrequirements of exported goods and shipped goods, which Asiamand African markets need rather than what they have, Oanh told congthuong.vn. 

She said open export procedures, convenient logistics services, and updatedinformation about the import policies of the host country would also benecessary to facilitate exports to these markets.

According to the official, ensuring raw materials would play a key rolefor exporters, especially those exporting textiles and garments to Chinaand South Korea and others shipping seafood products to South Asia andSoutheast Asia.  

Input materials for production needed to be diversifiedto avoid dependence on one or several markets, she added. 

In 2023, Oanh encouraged exporters to continue promoting theirexports to some lucrative markets such as China and India. In China, firmsshould pay attention to the Yunnan market. 

Guangxi and Yunnan have the same population of about 50 million people butthe scale of Vietnam’s trade with Yunnan in 2022 reached only 3.2 billion USDcompared to the country's 30 billion USD trade with Guangxi, sheexplained. 

Meanwhile, India is also a potential market with considerable purchasingpower and market demand thanks to a population of 1.4 billionpeople. Annually, India imported about 560 billion USD worth ofgoods. However, Vietnam’s exports made up only 1.4% of the country's totalimport value of 8 billion USD.

Besides the markets mentioned above, Oanh also advised exporters to lookto African markets, which have much untapped opportunities for them toaccelerate their exports, as Vietnam only accounted for 0.6% ofAfrica's import turnover worth 600 billion USD per year.

Viietnam’s merchandise trade with Asia reached 475.29 billion USD in2022, increasing by 9.6% compared to 2021 and accounting for the highestproportion (65.1%) in the country's total import-export value.

Major trade partners of Vietnam in Asia include China, the Republic of Korea,Japan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Last year, the value of imports and exports between Vietnam and Africa was 8.1billion USD, down 3.9%./.