Vietnam seeing positive export signs in Q1

Recovery of the world economy, including many major export markets of Vietnam, is a positive sign for the Southeast Asian nation’s import and export activities in the coming time.

Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s Foreign Trade Agency, said that total export-import turnover hit 178.04 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, up 15.5% year-on-year, resulting in a trade surplus of 8.08 billion USD.

Exports performed particularly well, with an estimated value of 93.06 billion USD, reflecting a 17% year-on-year growth, while imports reached 84.98 billion USD, representing a 13.9% increase.

In this quarter, 16 commodities reported an export value of over 1 billion USD each, accounting for 82.1% of the total export revenue, two higher than the 14 commodities recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

The export turnover growth of the domestic-invested enterprise sector reached 26.2%, nearly double that of the foreign-invested sector, including crude oil (up 13.9%), demonstrating efforts made the domestic economic sector to maintain and expand export markets.

Meanwhile, there were 17 commodities with import turnover of over 1 billion USD each, accounting for 76.1% of the total.

Bui Huy Son, head of the MoIT’s Financing Planning Department, said that Vietnam’s trade activities, especially export to key markets in Europe and America, will face both challenges and opportunities this year.

In addition to advantages for signed free trade agreements (FTAs), demand of the world market in general and Europe and America in particular is gradually recovering because inflation has been experiencing a downturn from the end of 2023 and is likely to approach the target level set out by central banks for 2024.

Those industrialised countries continue to promote strategies to diversify sources of supply, supply chains, and investments will help Vietnam become an important production and export centre in the global value chain. Meanwhile, the development of green economy, digital transformation, and circular economy of countries in Europe and America will also open up many new cooperation opportunities as well as providing a lot of credit and technology support to Vietnam, added Huy.

MoIT Deputy Minister Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said that the sector will closely monitor market developments and changes in partners' policies to propose appropriate solutions and develop a variety of traditional and new export markets.

It will continue making the most of signed FTAs, speeding up negotiations and signing of new ones, diversifying markets and supply chains, developing logistics services, and strengthening capacity on trade defence./.