The Vietnam Export Promotion Forum 2013 took place at Giang Vo Trade
Fair and Exhibition Centre in Hanoi on April 11 as part of the 23rd
Vietnam Expo.

Themed “Promoting sustainable
export development”, the forum focused on exchanging issues of common
concern for Vietnamese exporters, including market updates, impacts of
new policies on exports, and experience sharing in trade and export
promotion, in order to help enterprises boost export efficiency.

Opening the event, Do Thang Hai, Director General of the Trade
Promotion Agency (VIETRADE) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade
(MoIT) – the organiser – said that in 2012, despite economic
difficulties, Vietnam’s foreign trade gained remarkable achievements,
with total export turnover reaching its highest ever level of over 114.5
billion USD, an increase of 18.2 percent against 2011.

The result helped the country reach a trade surplus of 780 million USD for the first time in 20 years, he noted.

Vietnam earned 29.69 billion USD from exports in the first
quarter of this year, a year-on-year rise of 19.7 percent.

Export growth was seen in almost all key export products, and in both
domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) business sectors.

Export
turnovers to all markets increased positively, with 16.9 percent in the
US, and 32.2 percent in the European Union and 29.5 percent in
ASEAN countries.

At the forum, local and
international experts analysed export opportunities brought by free
trade agreements (FTA), especially that between Vietnam and the EU.

Vietnam has so far signed eight FTAs with other countries that account for 25 percent of total global consumption.

According to Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the MoIT’s Import-Export
Department, FTAs play an import role in boosting Vietnamese exports as
they help increase products’ competitiveness in big markets.

However, experts said Vietnamese businesses failed to capitalise on
the opening of markets that FTAs bring about, saying many neither
understand nor pay due attention to tariff preferences, thus reducing
their competitiveness overseas.

The MoIT is speeding up negotiation of FTAs, considering it a key solution to increasing exports from now until 2020.

In his presentation, Dao Ngoc Chuong, Deputy Director of the MoIT’s
Asia-Pacific Department provided an overview on trade and expectation of
Vietnam’s trade with the region in the coming time with special
attention given to measures to reduce the excess of imports over exports
in major markets.

Also at the forum, Dao Thu Trang,
an expert from Germany’s Industry and Trade Office in Vietnam had a
detailed presentation on the German market, business chances and
necessary attention needed to be taken regarding this market.-VNA