Exports could reach 239 billion USD this year: analysts

They said three quarters of 2018 have passed with positive export outcomes, creating momentum for the country to record a trade surplus for the year. Notably, the number of goods orders often rises strongly in the last months of the year, so overseas shipments are likely to hit a new record. According to the Department of Export and Import under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), export turnover between January and September reached 178.91 billion USD, up 15.4 percent year on year. The domestic sector shipped 51.07 billion USD worth of goods abroad while foreign-invested firms contributed 127.84 billion USD to the total exports. Twenty-six commodities recorded export revenue of more than 1 billion USD in the period, and five of them had exports topping 10 billion USD, including phones and accessories (36.1 billion USD), textiles and garments (22.6 billion USD), and electronic products, computers and components (21.6 billion USD). Meanwhile, Vietnam imported 173.52 billion USD worth of goods in the period, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier. That included 69.34 billion USD by domestic businesses and 104.18 billion USD by foreign firms. Three of the 30 commodities with import revenue in excess of 1 billion USD recorded turnover above 10 billion USD, statistics showed. As a result, the country enjoyed a trade surplus of 5.39 billion USD. While the domestic sector had a deficit of 18.26 billion USD, the foreign invested sector posted a surplus of 23.62 billion USD. Regarding the exports in the remainder of the year, Duong Duy Hung, Director of the MoIT's Department of Planning, said the US-China trade friction has yet to harm Vietnam's export growth over the past months. However, in the long term, political and trade tensions among big economies pose major challenges to exports. Officials said three months is not a long period, so the MoIT will monitor the world situation, especially the US-China trade war, to take measures to promote exports and prevent trade fraud. Trade promotion needs to be reformed to focus on long-term programmes promoting certain commodities and markets until concrete outcomes are gained, instead of just year-long campaigns. Experts also said the MoIT should connect Vietnamese exporters of agricultural and fishery products with Chinese importers to boost cross-border shipments, especially of the goods Vietnam is strong at and China has high demand for like fruit, aquatic products, rice and coffee.

(Source: VNA)