Challenges for Vietnamese exports
(VOV) - Although Vietnam’s export turnover in the first quarter of this year increased by 19.7 percent to US$29.69 billion compared to the same period last year, there remain certain challenges to overcome in the immediate future.
The problem was the food processing, fuel and mineral industries continued growing, but the export market for such products was shrinking.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said businesses need to identify priority areas and devise appropriate development strategies. At the moment, Vietnam is facing anti-dumping lawsuits, mostly related to shrimp and tra and basa fish exports.
In the first two months of this year, Vietnam earned more than US$1.89 billion in export revenue from China (up 19.4 percent). Its exports to the ASEAN market also increased by 29.1 percent to US$2.87 billion and those to Japan by 0.8 percent to US$1.88 billion.
In the meantime, the country exported US$4.17 billion worth of goods to the European market (up 28.2 percent) and US$3.68 billion to the American market (up 21.9 percent).
However, Vietnam’s exports are still hindered by trade protectionism as many governments have issued new exchange rate policies, raised technical barriers, and lodged anti-dumping lawsuits with the aim of protecting the interests of domestic businesses not to mention tough competition on the international market.
On home turf, Vietnamese businesses still find it hard to access capital for production when their products remain in store at a high level of inventory.
As a case in point, Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said the seafood sector is struggling to maintain production.
Deputy minister Anh asked businesses to closely monitor the market trend in the world and focus on promoting links between exporters and importers.
Mai Thi AnhTuyet, director of the An Giang provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said that it is urgent to help domestic busineses secure a firm foothold in the international market.
Diep Thanh Kiet, Vice President of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso), said that most of them are far behind FDI-enterprises in terms of both production output and export value. Therefore, relevant ministries and agencies need to support weak businesses in ironing out snags as quickly as possible.