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Production activities at Kaiser Wood Company, Binh Duong Photo: XuanThi.

Trade surplus over 4.5 billion USD

According to BinhDuong Statistical Department, the signing of the Free Trade Agreement and Investment Protection Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA and IPA) continues to bring many opportunities for agricultural exports (rice, coffee, honey, livestock, fruits, seafood), as well as textiles, footwear and furniture when the EU eliminates most import tariff lines.

In the firsteight months of 2019, Binh Duong had a trade surplus of more than 4.5 billion USD. Specifically, the province's eight-month export turnover reached over 17.5 billion USD, up 13% over the same period last year. While the total eight-month import turnover reached over 12.9 billion USD, up 7.1% over the same period last year.

Mr. Nguyen Van Danh, Director of Binh Duong Department of Industry and Trade, said that exports of domestic enterprises continued to be a bright spot in Vietnam's trade activities in general as well as Binh Duong province in particular in the first eight months of 2019. This result shows that the diversification of export markets and taking advantage of integration opportunities have been implemented well by domestic enterprises.

Particularly, many key products of Binh Duong have high export value. Leading is the wood industry with an export turnover of more than US$2 billion, up 15% over the same period, accounting for 11.5% of the total of export turnover of Binh Duong province. It is forecast that in the last months of the year, exports of wood and wood products of the province will continue to increase sharply in cycles, due to a sharp increase in construction, repair and replacement of interior equipment to serve Tetholiday. The main export markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea and Taiwan (China) continue to maintain good growth. In particular, the wood industry recorded an increase in consumption in new markets such as Canada and the Eurasian Economic Union.

With the textile industry, export turnover of enterprises in Binh Duong province in the past eight months reached nearly 1.8 billion USD, up 13.5% over the same period last year, accounting for 10.3% of the province’s export turnover total. The province's textile and apparel exports continue to maintain fairly stable growth. It is forecast that textile enterprises will continue to have stable export orders until the end of the third quarter of 2019; raw material prices were stable with no increase over the previous month.

Leather shoes also had a high export turnover in the first eight months of 2019 with US$1.9 billion, up 13.5% over the same period last year, accounting for 11.2% of the provincial export turnover. Leather and footwear enterprises have export orders until the end of the third quarter of 2019, with the export orders increasing by an average of 5% over the same period.

Ceramics and porcelain products in the first eight months of 2019 reached US$120 million, up 7.2% over the same period, accounting for 0.7% of the province's export turnover. Ceramic enterprises have export orders until the end of 2019, the number of orders increased over the same period last year. The main export markets are the US, Europe, China, Japan and some Asian countries.

Solving the problem of sustainable growth

According to the Department of Industry and Trade of Binh Duong province, in order to achieve the above results, in addition to growing in size of the enterprise structure, the industries in the province also strongly developed technology and production equipment of advanced countries in the world, thereby improving output, quality, and good fulfillment of partners' orders. Along with that, businesses have been interested in investing in producing auxiliary materials from domestic materials, so they can take the initiative in the source of raw materials for production.

Ms. Duong ThiTu Trinh, Director of Thuong Nguyen Woodworking Machinery Company, said that in order to have position and expand export markets, the company has invested in equipment and modern production technology, in accordance with international standards. This will help the company improve labor productivity and minimize manual labor creating more structural products, new models, meeting the needs and increasingly difficult requirements of market, especially for high quality items.

However, according to experts, many domestic export industries in general and Binh Duong in particular are facing disadvantages due to not being fully active in raw materials and accessories for production. At the same time, when the free trade agreements that Vietnam joins are implemented besides opportunities, there are small challenges. In order to ensure stable development, industries such as leather shoes, apparel and wood processing, need to pay attention to protect the origin of products for the nation, avoiding trouble in foreign trade activities whenthere is a trade war between major countries.

Mr. Nguyen Van Danh, Director of Binh Duong Department of Industry and Trade, said that in 2019, Binh Duong province set an export growthtarget of 15.5% compared to 2018. To achieve this goal, the unit has implemented many solutions such as: promoting the implementation of investment promotion and trade promotion programs to expand export markets; creating conditions for enterprises to register product brands in export markets.

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Along with that, the unit also actively advises the provincial People's Committee to attract investment in developing logistics services to support exports; implementing the administrative procedure reform related to production and business activities of enterprises in order to shorten the time for customs clearance of import and export goods.