12:44:30 PM | 4/9/2008
Total import-export value between Vietnam and the Asian-Pacific markets reached US$59.8 billion in the first seven months of this year, an on-year soar of 55.6 per cent, said the two-day meeting opened in Japan’s Tokyo August 27 gathering Vietnamese trade counselors in the Asia-Pacific region.
The figure represented up to 66.9 per cent of Vietnam’s two-way trade turnover with the global market during the period, said Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Nguyen Thanh Bien.
Of the sum, Vietnam’s exports to the Asia-Pacific region reached US$19.5 billion, up 52.7 per cent on-year and making up 52.3 per cent of its whole earnings during the period.
The Asia-Pacific region continues to be the leading importer of Vietnam’s crude oil, coal, electric wire and cable, rubber, electronic products and components, and rice, said a government official.
The official, however, pointed to the fact that imports from the region accounted for 77.2 per cent of Vietnam’s total import spending as it jumped 57 per cent to US$40.4 billion during the seven-month span.
The reported figures mean that Vietnam ran a huge trade deficit of US$20.9 billion with the Asia-Pacific region during the time.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Bien asserted that
The Asian-Pacific markets are important to the national development of Vietnam, asserted Mr Bien at the meeting, adding that trade counselors should focus on helping Vietnamese exporters to boost exports of high added value in the rest months of the year,
He urged trade counselors to increase trade promotion activities to seek export opportunities for their fellow businesses.
They also need to help reduce imports of consumer commodities from the region in order to keep the country’s trade deficit not to exceed 30 per cent of the export value as set by the MoIT, Bien said.
During the two-day meeting, trade counselors also discussed how to speed up cooperation and investment in the industrial sector in the Asia-Pacific region.
Vietnam has to date sent trade counselors to work in Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand .
Additionally, the country has placed four branch chiefs of its trade missions in Osaka (Japan), and Guangzhou, Nanning, and Kunming (China). (VNA, VOV)
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