Vietnam confident to gain trade surplus of US$7 billion in 2020

	Nation racks up trade surplus of US$17.3 billion by mid-October
	Trade surplus hits record high of US$17 billion over nine-month period
	Import & export reaches $361.5 billion, trade surplus continues hitting new record

The whole year’s exports are expected to record a year-on-year increase of 1%. Photo: TB

Exports in third quarter of 2020 reach US$80.07 billion

From the beginning of the year to the end of September, Vietnam's merchandise export activities still maintained positive growth. This makes more sense when regional and world economies recorded negative growth. According to the International Trade Center, the export turnover of 44 countries at the end of July of 2020 decreased by 12.4%.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the export turnover in the nine months was estimated at a year-on-year increase of 4.1%. Notably, in the third quarter of 2020, the export turnover reached US$80.07 billion, up 11% over the same period last year and up 34% compared to the second quarter of 2020 (up 26.6% compared to quarter 1 of 2020).

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said: “This shows that exports recognized a positive recovery in the third quarter of 2020. This recovery is concentrated in the group of industrial products, with an increase in export turnover of 4.7% over the same period in 2019, accounting for 84.6% of the total export turnover.”

The Government’s recent report to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on the implementation of the Socio-Economic Development Plan 2020, the Socio-Economic Development Plan projected for 2021 has given a comprehensive assessment on imports and exports from the beginning of the year. Specifically, the scale of import and export decreased sharply due to the interruption of the supply of raw materials for production and the narrowing of export markets amid the pandemic. The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) taking effect from August 1, 2020 has created more room for import and export activities. Besides, some export markets still maintain good growth momentum such as China, the US.

It can be seen that the most notable story in exports from the beginning of the year to now is the effectiveness of the EVFTA from August 1. Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that, after two months since the effective date of the EVFTA, authorized organizations have granted more than 20,000 sets of certificates of origin (C / O) form EUR.1 to 28 EU countries.

Turnover of goods with C/O in August 2020 was US$310 million and in September was US$519 million.

“The turnover has clearly increased, showing that enterprises have grasped the regulations to apply incentives. The items that have been granted C / O form EUR.1 are mainly footwear, seafood, plastic and plastic products, coffee, garments, textiles, bags, suitcases, vegetables, rattan, bamboo products and agricultural products. Among them, the best products that took advantage of the EVFTA were footwear and seafood," said Mr. Tran Thanh Hai.

Trade surplus for the whole year will be about US$7 billion

Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai said the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reviewed carefully each sector and industry to update the management scenario, consider solutions to overcome difficulties, promote production and export for the last months of the year. According to the assessment, industrial production, export and domestic trade for the whole year 2020 are more positive than those in July 2020. Based on the current situation, it is expected that Vietnam's exports for the whole year will be able to achieve an increase of 3-4%.

Regarding the import and export results for the whole year, the Government’s report has also given more detailed figures.

The total import-export turnover estimated for the whole year will reach about US$527 billion, up 1.8% compared to 2019. Of which, the export turnover will be about US$267 billion, an increase of about 1% compared to 2019; the import turnover will be about US$260 billion, an increase of about 2.6% compared to 2019; trade surplus will be about US$7 billion. The proportion of exports of foreign-invested enterprises (excluding crude oil) will account for about 65% of the total export turnover, down from 2019 (about 67.8%); Exports of domestic enterprises for the whole year is estimated to increase 9.87% compared to 2019.

In the last months of the year, to further promote exports, Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai stated that the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to research, propose and take more drastic measures in exploiting and accessing key markets, maintain and expand market share; preventing reducing orlosing export markets, especially for key export products; focus on reviewing administrative procedures on import and export in order to promote exports, facilitate and effectively support enterprises.

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"In addition, one important solution by the Ministry of Industry and Trade is to increase the implementation of trade promotion forms using online tools to maintain the market, relationships with partners and assist enterprises to quickly find partners for agricultural products, essential goods andanti-pandemic products; enhance IT application through the e-commerce environment and digital technology platforms, take advantage of opportunities to promote e-commerce to encourage strong development of domestic and export markets,” Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai said.