Maintaining growth momentum to push up Vietnamese trade activities

Despite facing numerous challenges last year, the country’s trade activities have obtained outstanding results, with total import and export turnover during the year reaching a record of over US$732 billion, up 10% compared to 2021. Of this figure, exports grossed US$371 billion, up 10.5% compared to 2021.

Most notably, the structure of export items last year witnessed positive changes with a reduction in raw exports and an increase in the export of processed products, while Vietnamese industrial products and other goods became more deeply involved in global supply chains.

Experts therefore emphasised the need to take full advantage of the achievements recorded last year and to fully tap into the country's advantages for future trade development, thereby making significant contributions to the country’s socio-economic development.

Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, vice president and general secretary of the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso), pointed out that the major challenge ahead this year for the leather and footwear sector remain raw materials. Xuan assessed that the industry has to import more than US$1 billion of leather every year in order to produce high-quality products specifically for export.

Xuan underlined the necessity of attracting additional investment in the production of leather materials and accessories in the nation as a means of increasing the proportion of shoe production, especially with regard to leather shoes for export.

She went on to underscore the importance of attracting investment in developing leather material areas at localities to produce highly value-added shoe categories, adding that the State must devise policies aimed at supporting enterprises to improve their design capacity, thereby allowing local firms to absorb new technologies from foreign markets.

Simultaneously, management agencies have been urged to continue to help local enterprises improve their capacity in terms of trade promotion activities with the aim of making further inroads into various markets, especially fastidious markets, Xuan noted.

Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that trade activities this year are anticipated to maintain their growth momentum as businesses have been utilising the incentives from various Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), as well as advantages from the shift of foreign investment flows from other markets into Vietnam.

Aside from meeting the increasingly stringent requirements of the export markets, Vietnamese businesses are required to improve their creative capacity, thereby further establishing their prestige in the international market, a factor which is projected to provide a basis for the diversification of markets in the future, Hai noted.  

Trade expert Vu Vinh Phu emphasised the need to ramp up the re-planning of production areas for industrial goods and agricultural products as a means of providing a stable supply source of high-quality goods at reasonable prices for the domestic distribution system and for export.

Furthermore, the State needs to further invest in infrastructure; including logistics and a national distribution system featuring supermarkets, shopping malls, wholesale markets, and trading floors of agricultural products; as well as establishing supply chains to enhance the overall competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in domestic and export markets, Phu noted.

He called on local enterprises to develop brands and make in-depth investments specifically to improve labour productivity, thereby proactively creating domestic raw material source to reduce reliance on imports.

Phu also suggested that the State formulate a policy aimed at building large branded retail corporations that are capable of producing goods whilst leading the development of the domestic market, accelerating the digital economy, as well as focusing on green growth and the circular economy.

The trade expert stressed the need to ramp up close co-ordination between domestic enterprises and trade offices based abroad, thereby expanding into new markets and contributing to diversifying export products and markets moving forward.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has been asked to co-ordinate efforts with relevant ministries and local authorities in a bid to rapidly deploy the export scheme through official channels as China has reopened its border in order to meet the strict standards set by the market.