Hanoi (VNA)♕ - Vietnam’s export turnover in July reached 22.60 billion USD, lifting the country’s export value in the first seven months of 2019 to 145.13 billion USD, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

The country's exports still grew stably in the first seven months of 2019 in spite of difficulties in the world market, said economist Pham Tat Thang. Thang added that new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) like the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will help Vietnamese exporters make inroads into high-end markets, thus accessing modern technologies for improving their competitiveness and fostering exports.

Processing industry plays a key role

The exportation by domestic enterprises remains a silver lining in Vietnam's trade activities in the first seven months of 2019, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh. Notably, the domestic economic sector’s export turnover hit 44 billion USD in the reviewed period, representing a year-on-year increase of 12.2 percent, and 5.6 percent higher than the export growth of the foreign-invested sector. Besides, the domestic economic sector’s proportion tended to increase, accounting for 30.3 percent of total export turnover. According to the minister, the processing industry continues to be a major contributor to the export growth. This group’s export value accounted for 83.6 percent of the total export turnover and increased by 9.5 percent over the same period last year. Most of the key export items in the processing industry group continued to grow compared to the same period last year. For example, the export values of textiles and garments; computers, electronic products and components; footwear and wood and wood products rose by 10.5 percent, 14.9 percent, 13.8 percent, and 16.4 percent, respectively. However, the export turnover of agricultural-aquaculture and fuel-mineral products decreased by 6.6 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2018.   Particularly, in the group of agricultural-aquaculture products, there were six out of the nine items reported decreases in export turnover, including seafood (down 1.9 percent), coffee (18.7 percent), rice (14 percent), cassava and products from the root (12.7 percent).

Vietnam has recorded good export growth at all market groups that the country signed FTAs with.

🥃 Accordingly, exports to Japan, the Republic of Korea, and ASEAN in the first seven months of 2019 respectively reached 11.4 billion USD, 10.7 billion USD and 10.7 billion, representing respective surges of 9.3 percent, 4.4 percent, and 5.4 percent over the same period last year.

Vietnam’s export value to CPTPP’s member markets also reported a stable growth. Notably, exports to Canada hit 2.18 billion USD in the period, up 31 percent year-on-year, while those to Mexico surged 24.2 percent to 1.6 billion USD.

A representative from the MoIT’s Import –Export Department♔ attributed the results to Vietnam’s efforts in diversifying export markets and fully tapping integration opportunities.

Vietnam enjoys a trade surplus of 1.8 billion USD

Vietnam's import turnover in the first seven months of 2019 was valued at 143.3 billion USD, up 8.3 percent year on year. In July alone, it reached 22.4 billion USD. Of this, the import of raw materials for domestic production accounted for 87.9 percent, equivalent to 125.95 billion USD, up 6.9 percent over the same period in 2018. The import of the largest amount was computers, electronic products and components with a total value of 28.2 billion USD, up 19 percent. In addition, the import turnover of machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts surged by 12.7 peercent, reaching 28.2 billion USD; and the import of textile materials was up 6.1 percent compared to the same period last year. As a result, the country enjoyed a trade surplus of about 1.8 billion USD. The domestic economic sector reported a trade surplus of 16.8 billion USD, while the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) enjoyed a trade surplus of 18.6 billion USD. The MoIT forecast that Vietnam's exports in the last months of 2019 will continue to maintain stable growth with the main drivers being traditional sectors such as textiles, footwear and furniture. To complete the goals set for the year, the ministry has taken many solutions, focusing on effectively implementing existing FTAs to expand export market and control imports./.