Vietnam’s exports are expected to enjoy a successful year as January
turnover hit 11.47 USD, up 10.8 percent over December 2012.
The country also reported a trade surplus of 776 million USD right in the first month of the year.
Cell phones and spare parts are among top products that made significant contribution to the result.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s statistic,
with a turnover of 1.5 billion USD in January, these two products even
surpassed garments and textile as well as crude oil to become the top
currency earner. Last year, these products brought home 12.72 billion
USD, accounting for over 10 percent of the country’s total export value.
This year, cell phones and spare parts are forecast
to continue their success as mobile giant Samsung Electronics Vietnam,
which contributes almost 100 percent to the country’s cell phone export,
is aiming for a strong growth in 2013 and an export turnover of 16.3
billion USD.
Meanwhile, garments and textile and
footwear also had a good start with 1.05 billion USD in export value, an
increase of 24.8 percent over the same period last year.
According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, most of its
members have received enough orders to keep them busy until the end of
the first quarter. Some large businesses have even received orders for
the second and third quarters.
At the same time,
leather and footwear sector is also expected to enjoy high growth, as so
far, many firms have won orders until the end of the year.
It is forecast that orders from the US will increase about 10
percent, while the EU market will be more stable than last year.
January is also a good month for the agro-forestry and fisheries
sectors, with total export earnings hitting 2.17 billion USD, a 39.7
percent rise compared with the same time last year.
The question is how to maintain the momentum into the year.
At a recent video conference of the ministry this month, MoIT Minister
Vu Huy Hoang urged caution even though export was a bright spot in the
country’s economic picture last year. He noted that the rise in exports
in January was not stable.
The minister stated that
it is necessary to find more export products that have high added value
such as electronics. On the other hand, he added, policies to strictly
control import of non-essential and luxurious products should be
implemented to curb trade deficit.
Hoang’s concern
is reasonable, as the global economic situation remain changeable with a
lot of risks. Many countries tend to apply policies to protect domestic
production and strengthen technical barriers, making it more difficult
for Vietnam’s export.
Challenges will be great
for the country’s key export products. Demands for garments and textile
are decreasing in large markets such as the US, EU and Japan,
while other suppliers in the world are trying to cut the price by 5-7
percent.
Meanwhile, agro-forestry and fishery
exports are mainly in the form of raw and unprocessed products without
much added value, not to mention hinders from technical obstacles from
importers, which reduce the sector’s competitiveness.
Experts also warned of a fact that foreign-invested firms continue to
account for a bigger share of exports, manifesting the weak capacity of
domestic businesses.-VNA