Vietnamese spend more than 2 billion USD on importing western medicine

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Every year, Vietnam is spending billions of dollars on importing drugs. Photo: Internet.

According to the General Department of Customs, by September 15, Vietnam's medicine import turnover was 2.144 billion USD, up by over 10% compared to the same period last year, equivalent to an increase of about 200 million USD.

According to the correspondent's observation, Europe is a region with many importing markets of Vietnam's medicine such as France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, England and Ireland.

Updates from the General Department of Customs said by the end of August, many markets reached a turnover of hundreds of millions of USD or more.

In particular, France is the country with the largest import turnover of Vietnamese medicines in Europe as well as the world.

By the end of August, the turnover from the French market alone reached nearly 265 million USD. This is also the largest import group of Vietnam in this market, took more than 26% of total import turnover from France.

Drug import turnover from France in the first 8 months of 2019 increased sharply by more than 29% compared to the same period last year.

In addition, the German market reached more than 215 million USD, but this result only increased by nearly 10 million USD over the same period in 2018.

Along with Europe, Asia also has many major import markets for Vietnam's medicines such as Korea, India, Japan, Thailand, China and Singapore.

Although the Indian market has declined about 10 million USD compared to a year ago, this South Asian country is still the largest drug supplier of Vietnam in Asia with a turnover of over US$163 million.

Regarding the Chinese market, drug import turnover reached nearly 25 million USD, but the group of medicine materials and accessories reached nearly 169 million USD.

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In the Americas, the United States is the largest market with a turnover of 110 million USD, while the import of drugs from Canada is negligible, reaching nearly 10 million USD in the first 8 months of this year.