Vietnam painted a bright economic picture in 2011 as it earned more than US$96 billion from exports, up 33 percent against 2010, and reduced the trade deficit to US$10 billion.

Total import-export value beat the US$200 billion mark, doubling last year’s GDP, and overtaking the Philippines to rank fifth in Southeast Asia after Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang granted an exclusive interview to VOVOnline, shedding light on import-export achievements in 2011.

VOVOnline: What do you think of Vietnam’s import-export achievements?

Minister Hoang: Our exports continued to grow and flourish despite negative impact of the global economic slowdown. Notably, our export earnings fetched a record high of US$96.3 billion, 23 percent over the target set by the National Assembly and up 33 percent against 2010. For the first time the rratio of exports to GDP surpassed the 80 percent threshold, beating the record 69 percent level in 2010.

The high export growth was attributed to an increase in both volume and prices. Five commodities that fetched export value of US$6 billion each include garments, crude oil, seafood, footwear, and mobile phones and spare parts.  

Meanwhile, the trade deficit was kept at a 10-year low of 10.4 percent, or US$10 billion, which was much lower than the 18 percent target set by the National Assembly and the 16 percent target set by the Government.

The record high export value and the record low trade deficit are of great significance to Vietnam given national and global difficulties. The US$96 billion export record is expected to be broken next year because there are more opportunities for our key exports such as rice and coffee.

VOVOnline: Could you elaborate further on changes in the export structure in 2011?

Minister Hoang: There was a major shift towards increasing the ratio of industrial and high-tech products to total exports and decreasing that of unprocessed items. Specifically, the ratios of industrial products increased slightly by 0.2 percent and fuel and mineral ores by 0.5 percent, while the ratio of agro-forestry and fishery products dropped slightly from 21.2 percent to 20.3 percent.

Notably, mobile phones, one of the high-tech products, made a large contribution to total export value, fetching more than US$7.1 billion, double 2010’s figure.

The impressive export value was also attributed to the soaring prices of key exports in the world market, including rice, coffee, rubber, crude oil and coal, and an increasing ratio of processed products such as seafood, garments, wood products, plastics and electric cables.

There were more than 10 such products that benefitted from high export prices. They were crude oil increasing by 43.6 percent, coal 17.3 percent, petroleum 37.9 percent, mineral ores 20 percent, steel 13 percent, cashew nuts 45.2 percent, pepper 66.5 percent and rice 10 percent.

Nearly 10 export items enjoyed an increase in quantity, ranging from 5.1 percent (crude oil) to 58.5 percent (cassava).

However, Vietnam still relies on the import of materials for the garments, footwear and electronics industries.

Source: VOV