Ninh Binh continues to remove difficulties in export-import activities

In March, Ninh Binh's export value saw a decline of 6.6 percent as compared to the same month of last year. However, its export turnover still reached 602.6 million USD in the first quarter, up 0.7 percent year on year.

Some key export staples are garment products, footwear, cement and clinker, cameras and telephone components, and automobile wipers. Meanwhile, some export products witnessed declines such as canned pineapple and cucumber (down 33.2 percent), optical glasses (down 22.7 percent), and electronic components (down 456 percent).

Export has still maintained its growth momentum, while import has faced difficulties, leading to shortages of materials for production. 

According to the Department of Industry and Trade, the province's import value was estimated at 247 million USD, representing a year-on-year drop of 8.8 percent, raising the total figure in the first quarter to 711.3 million USD, a year-on-year decrease of 13.8 percent.

In an attempt to support import-export activities, the Department of Industry and Trade has created favorable conditions for exporters by granting certificates of origin (C/O) to them, thereby helping businesses to reduce time for import-export procedures.

At the same time, it has actively built trade promotion and e-commerce programmes in 2021.

The department has also assisted local enterprises to expand export markets by building a database on international economic integration and free trade agreements (FTAs).

Besides, it will also continue to popularise legal regulations on e-commerce for officials and employees at state agencies and businesses in the province. It will also disseminate origin rules and provide C/O for exporters in Ninh Binh and neighbouring provinces.

The province defined that in the 2021-2025 period, the enforcement of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will create a wider market for ASEAN members, thus ASEAN will be the leading market for Ninh Binh businesses.

As for goods, local businesses are advised to enhance their capacity in the processing industry with high technology and using domestic materials and continue to boost the export of garment and textiles, footwear, electronic components, cement - clinker, and automobile parts.

The department has guided local enterprises to take advantages of bilateral and multilateral FTAs to step up the export of products to the Korean and Japan markets.

Building programmes to assist and increase the competitiveness for enterprises which have strong export goods like handicraft products, agricultural products, textile, camera moduls and electronic components in line commitments in the FTAs.

In a bid to reach the target of 2.4 billion USD in export value in 2021, the provincial People's Committee has asked local administrations and sectors to strictly implement the province's theme of work for 2021 "discipline, responsibility, stepping up administrative reform" in the fields of investment, customs, tax, land, import, export; continue improving e-customs clearance; minimise time of handing over land to investors; and issue land use certificates for organisations and local people.

At the same time, the province will improve the investment climate to draw more resources from all economic sectors, especially investors coming from nations which signed FTAs with Vietnam.

Provincial authorities will also supplement the lists of key investment areas and projects as well as investment incentives in prioritised fields and production of goods for export.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy