The Commercial Counsellor Conference 2011 was recently hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, aiming to seek solutions for closer coordination of commercial counsellors with authorities, enterprises and business associations in the context that export difficulties are expected to persist in 2012.
Export promotion
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Nguyen Thanh Bien said that in 2011 and following years, the Vietnam economy will continue facing difficulties and challenges, Vietnam and world conditions will remain complex and unpredictable. Therefore, determination of orientation and main content of foreign market activities is considered one of the most important activities for export, import, attracting investment, and transferring production technology to meet the target of binding domestic production.
As for export, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien informed that export growth was higher than import growth, which resulted in improved trade balance. By the end of November 2011, Vietnam goods export turnover reached US$87.2 billion, increasing 34.7 percent over the same period in 2010. In detail, domestic capital sector has gained a turnover of US$37.8 billion, increasing 27.7 percent; sector with foreign investment (including crude oil) has gained US$49.4 billion, increasing 40.7 percent. Not taking into account crude oil, export of enterprises with foreign investment is estimated to reach US$42.6 billion, increasing 39.2 percent.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Bien also said, when there was a risk that the world economy would fall into a new recession, the year of 2012 was forecasted to be one with many difficulties and challenges to Vietnam economy, as well as to export activities. Meanwhile, tasks that the Government and National Assembly commissioned the trade and industry sector in 2012 are higher than that in 2011, namely: industrial development index increases about 8 percent, export increases about 13 percent, reaching about US$108.5 billion; import increases about 14.6 percent, reaching about US$121.5 billion and trade deficit is about US$13 billion, accounting for 12 percent of total export turnover; and by 2015 export will have increased 12.1 percent in average, trade deficit will have been under 10 percent.
In the following time, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will focus on intensively pushing trade, searching and expanding markets; combining trade promotion with investment promotion and industry cooperation; searching and calling for foreign investors to participate in developing supporting industries; cooperate actively with local entities to discover commodity demand, abilities to attract foreign investments and implementation of local investment in that country; participate actively in restraining import through giving solutions and proposals for each market, firstly for our main import markets. Besides that, the Ministry will participate in a practical and effective implementation of Resolution 36 of the Ministry of Politics on Vietnamese overseas; appeal to them to cooperate in expanding Vietnam’s export markets, promote investment, transfer technology, and attract foreign capital.
Strong growth in industrial production
According to the Department of International Cooperation on cooperation in industrial sector, the industry has grown vigorously in 2001 to 2010, many industrial products have high quality and high value, affirming their positions in both domestic and foreign markets. The structure of industrial sector has also changed positively, with the proportion of non state industry and foreign capital industry strongly increased. Investment into industry has grown fast. There is currently over 1,500 FDI projects with total registered capital of US$ 200 billion, over 50 percent out of which have been disbursed.
In the field of heavy industry, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Le Duong Quang said that most manufacturing industries, such as mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mining, mineral processing have high demand for international cooperation, including investment activities, importing raw materials and fuel as input, exporting products.
Chemical industry is an industry of strong development with the growth of 10-15 percent in recent years, however it has satisfied only about 60-70 percent of domestic demand, according to the Deputy Minister Nguyen Nam Hai. Therefore, in order to ensure development of the chemical industry worthy of its potential, it is necessary to carry out comprehensive solutions, among which international cooperation in chemical industry is an important solution.
Exchanging information on the field of light industry, the Deputy Minister Ho Thi Kim Thoa said, manufacturing sectors such as confectionery, textiles, and footwear have confirmed their important position in creating jobs and stable lives for millions of workers. However, depending too much on imported fuel and raw materials and using outdated technology causing environmental pollution are weak points which should be improved in the future.
In the field of energy industries, after outlining development potential and demand for international cooperation, the Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong proposed commercial counsellors pay special attention to searching for opportunities of developing clean and renewable energy besides current traditional energy sources.
Huong Ly
Vietnamese
