Ninh Binh's export turnover up 9.8 percent despite difficulties caused by COVID-19

In 2021, Ninh Binh had previously set a target of 2.4 billion USD in export revenue. However, due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and territories have still closed their borders, causing difficulties for local exporters, especially those shipping agricultural products and handicrafts to the EU, Japan, and ASEM markets.

Import activities also faced challenges due to the closure of some markets. Many local firms faced the risk of disruption in supply chains. These factors caused difficulties for local enterprises to accomplish their export targets and reach the province's export-import value as well.

Amid this context, the provincial People's Committee has carried out the Government's Resolution No. 63/NQ-CP dated June 29, 2021 on key tasks and solutions to boost economic growth, disbursement of public capital investment, and sustainable export, contributing to the fulfillment of socio-economic development targets in 2021.

At the same time, the province has synchronically implemented numerous measures in a flexible and creative way to ease difficulties faced by enterprises so that they could stabilise their production and trade activities.

The provincial authorities paid heed to implementing a plan on developing e-commerce in 2021 and assisting local enterprises and cooperatives to sell products on e-commerce platforms like Sendo, Tiki and Lazada.

The provincial People's Committee also issued a plan to enforce the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) and strengthen the apparatus of the provincial steering committee for economic integration. It stepped up connection activities and organised training courses and conferences for local businesses to get access to information and expand markets.

Hence, Ninh Binh's export value exceeded 2.96 billion USD in 2021, representing an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the figure of 2020, and 23.6 percent higher than the yearly plan.

Key export staples are clothes (417 million USD); cement and clinker (612 million USD); footwear (664 million USD); camera and mobile phone components (875 million USD); electronic components (77.4 million USD); and automobile spare parts (46,3 million USD).

Meanwhile, its total import revenue was estimated at 3.18 billion USD, up 7 percent against 2020, and 2.8 percent higher than the yearly estimate. Main import products are electronic components, automobile spare parts, and materials for the textile-garment and footwear industries.

Hoang Trung Kien, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said the department has assisted three firms to build e-commerce websites and two others to build pavilion on e-commerce platform Alibaba.

Besides, the department has created favorable conditions for exporters by granting certificates of origin (C/O) to them, thereby helping businesses to receive preferential tariffs when exporting goods to the markets which had signed FTAs with Vietnam, especially the EU market.

Since the beginning of 2021, the export-import management division has granted over 5,700 C/O via the Internet, helping to boost the province's export and successfully achieve the yearly target set by the provincial People's Committee.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy