Automobile sales in Vietnam plunged in July due to the complications of COVID-19 and social distancing measures being applied in many localities nationwide.

In the month, 16,035 cars were sold, a month-on-month decline of 32 percent, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA).

There included 10,411 passenger cars, down 34 percent; 5,163 commercial and 461 special-purpose vehicles, slipping 27 percent and 30 percent against the previous month, respectively.

The sale of domestically-assembled vehicles was down 32 percent with 9,024 units sold, while that of completely built up (CBU) ones fell 31 percent with 7,011.

VAMA members sold a total 166,516 vehicles in the first seven months of the 2021, a year-on-year expansion of 27 percent.

The figure comprised of 115,318 passenger and 47,690 commercial vehicles, up 22 percent and 37 percent compared to the same period last year.

The number does not reflect sales of non-VAMA members.

In seven months, TC Motor of Hyundai Thanh Cong sold 38,066 vehicles, while VinFast of conglomerate Vingroup sold 19,720 units./.

Support teams to be formed to help remove customs clearance obstacles

The General Department of Vietnam Customs has issued official letter No. 3980/TCHQ-GSHQ asking customs departments and sub-departments nationwide to set up support teams to remove obstacles in processing customs clearance procedures for import-export goods, especially medical supplies, medicines, vaccines and bioproducts for testing.

The teams will be led by leaders of the customs departments and sub-departments.

Alongside, a number of urgent measures have been applied to ensure fast customs clearance process for import-export goods.

Specifically, time for completing the examination of customs documents and checking of goods should not exceed two hours and eight hours respectively.

The sub-department-level teams will be on duty round-the-clock to remove obstacles in customs clearance process, ensuring fast process.

Earlier, the general departments issued a number of guiltiness detailing measures to support fast customs clearance to assist importers and exporters./.

India decides not to impose anti-dumping duty on MDF boards from Vietnam

The Indian Finance Ministry has decided to not impose anti-dumping duty on several types of medium density fiber (MDF) boards having thickness below 6mm imported from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam (TRAV).

The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry‘s Directorate General of Trade Remedies launched investigation into the case in April 2020.
Before the investigation, Vietnam’s export of MDF boards with thickness below 6mm to India reached 2.3 million USD in 2019, reported the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

The TRAV also reported that the India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies announced the extension of deadline for the submission of answers regarding the end-of-term review of anti-dumping measures on elastomeric filament yarn originated from China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) and Vietnam till August 20, 2021.

Parties concerned should send answers via the email adg15-dgtr@gov.in; adv13-dgtr@gov.in; dir16-dgtr@gov.in; dd15-dgtr@gov.in.

The TRAV asked the Vietnamese producers and exporters to thoroughly read guidelines, submit answers before deadline, and work closely with the TRAV if they need support.

Any behaviour showing unwillingness or uncooperativeness could result in evidence for the further imposition of anti-dumping duty, thus reducing competitiveness, losing part or the whole market share to other competitors or countries and territories, it said.

Viet Nam urged to develop its Halal industry

Viet Nam needs to accelerate the development of its Halal industry in the near future in order to take full advantage of the lucrative market, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Quang Hieu.

Hieu delivered the statement at a workshop held virtually by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. The event was one of the ministry’s initiatives to boost Vietnamese exports to the Halal market and built a strategic and comprehensive plan for the industry in Viet Nam.

Halal foods are "permitted" and "legal" products under Islamic Law with extremely detailed and strict standards.

The global Halal market has huge potential and was growing fast with promising prospects due to the Muslim population which was growing globally from Southeast Asia, South Asia to the Middle East and North Africa, Hieu said.

He added the Halal economy was very diverse and comprised seven main sectors, including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, tourism, fashion, Islamic finance, media and entertainment. In which, food and Islamic finance were two areas less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The two areas were forecast to recover and further develop after the pandemic.

Particularly, the Halal food industry covered not only production and processing but also related to many other fields such as raw materials and logistics services (preservation, packaging and transportation). Therefore, the development of the Halal food industry, or the larger Halal industry, will promote the development of ancillary services and fields.

Meanwhile, the trend of using Halal products was also increasing, even among non-Muslims because Halal products met environmental and food safety criteria.

But Hieu said Viet Nam’s market share in the global Halal market was quite modest as Vietnamese producers had been struggling to obtain Halal certification.

According to preliminary statistics from localities, about 58.7 per cent of provinces and cities nationwide had initially exported Halal food to foreign markets while nearly 41.3 per cent failed to have certified Halal products.

Additionally, Halal standards and regulations were increasingly tightened and a Halal certification was not permanent and equally recognised by countries. Vietnamese firms were also facing stiff competition from many rivals who had already established strong footholds in the Islamic markets, Hieu added.

However, participants at the event agreed that despite all these, the global Halal market remained promising for Viet Nam as the country held competitive edges in food production, tourism, textile and garment, and pharmaceuticals, which were dubbed pillars of the Halal economy.

It has also signed many free trade agreements (FTAs), including a number of new-generation deals, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), EU-Viet Nam FTA (EVFTA), and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

In order to not miss any chance to access the Halal market, it was critical for Viet Nam to step up international cooperation to shape suitable strategies for the development of the Halal industry, they said.

Fostering co-operation in developing regulations and standards for Halal products and Halal certification organisations in Viet Nam in harmony with that of major importing countries would be also needed. That would facilitate the trade of Halal products globally while promoting the exchange of Halal products and services of Viet Nam with global Halal markets, participants suggested.

In the future, Hieu said, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work closely with other ministries, agencies and sectors, research institutes and businesses and associations to draw up development strategies for Viet Nam's Halal industry, which would focus on strengthening bilateral co-operation between Viet Nam and partners on Halal products as well as signing agreements on increasing the production and distribution of Viet Nam's Halal food to key markets.

Facilitating bilateral and multilateral agreements on mutual recognition of Halal certifications and organisations granting Halal certification and seeking foreign investment in Viet Nam's Halal industry would be also prioritised.

The Global Halal Food Market Report 2021-24 published by DinarStandard estimates global halal food trade to be valued at US$129 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $140 billion by 2024.

This increasing trend was largely driven by an increase in consumer demand, followed by a rising Muslim population globally, the report said, adding that the industry was also witnessing an increasing preference for convenient, nutritionally enriched, and functional food & beverages amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Islamic economy space had also attracted the attention of top global brands creating innovative products and services across sectors. The governments of both OIC and non-OIC countries, food companies, and the private sector were making significant investments in the Halal market, according to the report. 

Vietnam - US trade exceeds US$50 billion in first half

Bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and the United States in the first half of the year witnessed robust growth, climbing to over US$50 billion, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Of the figure, Vietnamese exports to the US enjoyed a surge of 44.7% to US$45.58 billion compared to the same period from last year, accounting for 28.8% of the country's total export turnover.

Garments were the country’s key export item, raking in US$7.61 billion, up 23.1% year on year, or making up 49.7% of the country’s total garment exports.

Furthermore, the US also imported phones, computers, agricultural products, shoes, wooden furniture and seafood products from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the initial six months of the year saw Vietnamese imports from the US surge by 9% year on year, reaching US$7.63 billion, or accounting for 4.8% of the country's import turnover.

The US remains Vietnam’s largest import market in the Americas region, with key import items including computers, electronic products and components, cotton, soybeans, scrap iron, and steel.

Throughout the 2016 to 2020 period, Vietnamese export turnover to the US witnessed a rapid increase of 230%, while exports from the US to Vietnam grew by more than 175%.

The US has developed into the largest export market for Vietnamese products, while Vietnam is the 10th largest trading partner of the US.

Experts note that there remains plenty of room to increase bilateral trade turnover as the United States Trade Representative (USTR) recently issued a formal conclusion of the investigation under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act concerning the valuation of Vietnamese currency.

Under an agreement on the matter reached between the US Department of the Treasury and the State Bank of Vietnam, the USTR will not take any trade action against Vietnam.

As Chairman of the Vietnam Sub-committee of the Vietnam-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has co-ordinated with various Vietnamese ministries and agencies to promote policy dialogue between the two sides, bringing about substantive results and helping increase bilateral trade.

New impetus needed to achieve 2021 economic growth target: experts

Economic experts have emphasised the need to have a new impetus to improve economic growth in the remaining months of 2021 towards realising the growth target for the year set by the Government and the National Assembly.

Vietnam’s economic growth is forecast to expand by 6 percent this year.

According to Le Trung Hieu from the General Statistics Office, the country’s GDP growth in the first six months increased by 5.64 percent.

It is difficult to achieve the yearly growth target of 6.5 percent set by the Government amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is weakening the internal capacity of the national economy.

To realise the growth target of 6 percent required in the National Assembly’s Resolution on socio-economic development plan in 2021, Hieu said that the economic growth needs to rise by 6.3 percent in the last six months of the year.

This goal is completely feasible if the epidemic is controlled soon, and synchronous solutions of the Government proves effective, he noted.

Economic experts agreed that the economic growth in the remaining months of the year completely depends on the ability to control the pandemic.

Nguyen Minh Cuong - Chief economist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Vietnam underlined the importance of vaccination in the time to come, saying that this is the drive and the hope for economic recovery.

Apart from accelerating vaccination campaigns, it is necessary to speed up disbursement of public investment because it still plays a leading role in economic growth, he said./. 

 Virtual interviews on the rise as social distancing measures disrupt recruitment

While recruitment activities are stable during the pandemic, virtual interviews are becoming more popular. — Photo vitop.vn

Le Cao Tuan, 29, looked nervous in his navy blue shirt and beige trousers sitting in front of his laptop computer in a corner of his apartment in Ha Noi. He was in the middle of an interview for a new job but due to social distancing restrictions, he had to do his interview online.

Tuan was successful and started working from home for an education company.

Recruitment activities have remained stable compared to last year, despite the complicated wave of the pandemic, and virtual interviews are experiencing a renaissance.

"Learning from last year's experience, businesses are no longer passively responding to the pandemic. With more business continuity plans in hand, they have been able to minimise the COVID-19 disruptions to their operations, including recruitment," Nguyen Thu Ha, Director of Human Resources at Adecco Viet Nam said.

"Most businesses switched to virtual hiring practices after the Government issued decrees on the prevention of COVID-19," she added.

Data from Adecco showed positive signs in the number of new jobs being created with an increase of up to 60 per cent in Q2, 2021 for some sectors. Food and beverage, transportation, and tourism sectors, however, are still struggling.

Due to the rapid digital adoption driven by COVID-19, technology-related sectors such as e-commerce and Fin-tech had a high hiring demand. The manufacturing industry was also actively hiring.

“Companies now prefer experienced and highly specialised candidates as they can take on the job promptly, instead of recruiting and training entry-level roles. They are looking for key positions that can help sustain their businesses in the current ever-changing market,” Ha said.

According to experts, the major challenge in recruitment was the switch from traditional to virtual interviews. These are often not enough for candidates to effectively evaluate the work culture.

They said it was also more challenging for employers to observe body language and how candidates react to the workplace.

The engagement level in virtual onboarding is also a concern. Without a human connection and face-to-face interactions, it is hard for new hires to set the right tone for work and get a feel for what it is like to work in the company.

As not everyone is comfortable being on camera, some of them might feel awkward, leading to a lack of confidence and this may be misjudged by interviewers.

However, in the context of social distancing, this new type of interview has become a must.

Andree Mangels, General Director, Adecco Vietnam, also emphasised the importance of a social media presence, saying: “It's not just the top talent that needs to sell themselves. Businesses also need to find ways to attract top talent.

"By regularly sharing about life at the company, your hiring stages, values, and working culture, you offer candidates a more holistic and realistic idea of your workplace. This forms a bond between you and the candidate even before applying, which helps you stand out, secure the prospective candidates, and it improves the candidate pool.”

Even with no traditional one-on-one interviews, candidates should be as prepared as possible, the experts said.

Recruiters said at the bare minimum candidates needed to pre-check their equipment, software, lighting, and background. They could have a rehearsal interview with a friend to familiarise themselves with the key features and be more relaxed in front of the camera.

Turn off any notifications that can cause distractions before the interview. Maintain eye contact during the interview by looking at the camera, not the screen.

At the end of the interview, keep a professional expression for a few seconds after clicking on the end meeting button. Candidates need to ensure that they are completely disconnected so that they will not show any inappropriate looks by chance.

Exports of wood products surge 55 per cent in seven months

Viet Nam exported US$9.58 billion worth of wood and wood products in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 55 per cent, according to the General Department of Customs.

Of the figure, wood products raked in $7.44 billion, posting a 64-per cent rise compared with the same period last year.

Local experts contributed the impressive growth to increasing demand for furniture during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Dien Quang Hiep chairman of Binh Duong Furniture Association (BIFA), shipments to the main export markets of the Binh Duong wood processing industry rose considerably.

The US market accounted for more than 65 per cent of Binh Duong's total export turnover, with an increase of 81 per cent over the same period last year, while Hong Kong (China) made up 8.5 per cent, with an increase of more than 47 per cent, and Taiwan (China) picked up 43 per cent.

A similar situation is also reported in the central province of Binh Dinh.

Ngo Van Tong, director of Binh Dinh Department of Industry and Trade, said local wood products had been exported to countries in Europe, Oceania, America, Asia, and Africa. The province’s furniture exporters had received orders until the end of the third quarter of this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many difficulties for trade and transportation activities, resulting in changes in work and lifestyles, with consumers purchasing more furniture to work from home. Thus, Hiep said, the province's export turnover of living room and dining room furniture was forecast to rise rapidly.

To be able to meet the orders of wood products, wood processing enterprises in Binh Duong had quickly adapted and changed their production methods accordingly, he said, adding that some businesses were renting more land to open factories.

Bui Chinh Nghia, deputy general director of the Viet Nam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said along with the US, Japan, and Hong Kong (China) markets, Viet Nam’s export turnover of wood and wood products to the European market would increase sharply in the last months of 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control and prevention measures are gradually eased.

Although Viet Nam's wood processing and export industry has gained momentum given the whole country is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges still lie ahead.

According to Nguyen Liem, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lam Viet Company in Binh Duong Province, the high growth in export value of the wood industry in the past two years contains potential risks because the US would increase defensive measures for imports with sudden growth.

Therefore, enterprises that export furniture for living and dining rooms should be careful to avoid becoming a transit point for goods to a third country, he said, adding that if the US imposes sanctions on Viet Nam's wood industry, the whole sector would be seriously affected.

Another problem for the sector is the lack of empty containers for shipments, which has pushed transport costs up by twice, three times and even 10 times in the past two to three years. 

Vietnamese businesses to e-meet South Korean companies from Incheon

 Vietnamese businesses will meet South Korean companies via an online trade event held from September 6-10 by the South Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Ha Noi.

The event, featuring ten businesses from Incheon City, aims to promote bilateral trade between Vietnamese buyers and South Korean suppliers from Incheon, facilitating trade between the two sides.

Incheon is one of South Korea’s port cities. The Incheon Port has a total berth length of more than 28,700m, meaning it can accommodate 128 boats docking at the same time. It currently has trade links with ports from 187 other countries around the world.

The port alone contributes sales of 21,883 billion won to Incheon City, value-added sales of 7,439 billion won, creating jobs for 134,595 people, according to KOTRA.

This was South Korea's first special economic zone in 2003, and is the country’s largest export centre with 11 large industrial production complexes covering many fields from industrial production to cosmetics and food.

In the first six months of this year, KOTRA helped connected Vietnamese businesses with more than 18 South Korean business delegations, the equivalent of 300 enterprises via online exchange events. Among them, nearly 100 new Korean exporters were connected for the first time.

The number of online transactions have been increasing month by month despite travel restrictions between the two countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, KOTRA said.

Overseas agritech firms' investment to boost Vietnam's agriculture  

This August, nine scale-ups will begin receiving GRAFT’s 15-week program of tailored support, during which a network of in-market experts will provide bespoke consultation to help the scale-ups validate their technologies. This phase of the program will culminate with the scale-ups presenting their solutions to Vietnamese agricultural corporations at an intensive week-long roadshow.

After a competitive and inspiring online challenge, the selection committee of GRAFT Challenge Vietnam has chosen nine leading agritech scale-ups from overseas to enter the Vietnamese market such as AgNext Technologies, Cropln (India), EveryPig (the US), Hillridge Technology (Australia), JalaTech, Koltiva (Indonesia), ListenField (Thailand), Sufresca (Israel) and Tepbac (Vietnam).

Designed to give promising innovators from around the world bespoke support to scale into Vietnam with the aim of solving the country’s most pressing agrifood challenges, the GRAFT project is funded by the Australian Government through its Aus4Innovation program and in partnership with Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

According to the program, proposed solutions included integrated IoT solutions to improve water quality in local aquaculture systems, microbial solutions for environmentally-friendly crop health management, and microclimate monitoring and control systems for safer and more energy-efficient piggeries. All the scale-ups were either post-revenue or had previously graduated from a top global accelerator program.

Koltiva, providing tailor-made software platforms and professional services in end-to-end business solutions, is one of the nine scale-ups in the challenge with the participation from 16 countries including the US, Israel, Australia, India, and Thailand. 

Manfred Borer, CEO of Koltiva believes the company is aligned with the aim of the GRAFT Challenge by providing state of the art web and mobile technologies, that aim to better smallholder farmer productivity and product quality as well as supplying enterprises of all levels the integration they need to manage their sustainability project activities and trace their raw materials through all stages of the supply chain.

Justin Ahmed, GRAFT Program Lead said: “The caliber of this year's applicants exceeded even our already-high expectations. The market-ready solutions and capabilities carried by our inaugural cohort will help many of Vietnam's agrifood industry leaders to solve some of their toughest challenges.”

Prior to the challenge, the GRAFT team had convened industry working groups of Vietnamese agribusiness corporates to identify the unique challenges that face Vietnam’s crops and plantations, aquaculture, and livestock industries. Many of these challenges were related to climate-driven production risk, improving feed cost-efficiency, reducing post-harvest losses, and building consumer trust. 

Borer, CEO of Koltiva defined a multitude of issues for agricultural supply chains in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, including poor market transparency, improper farm management, and limited access to formal financial services and farm inputs. 

The company aims to provide technical solutions to overcome the triple challenge of feeding a growing population while providing a livelihood for farmers and at the same time protecting the environment. “We are sure that Koltiva will be able to overcome any barriers to start building up a committed client base in Vietnam,” he told The Hanoi Times.

Tom Wood, Program Director of Aus4Innovation said the success of the program in selecting a strong cohort gives Aus4Innovation even more confidence in this public-private partnership. 

“Agrifood is a priority sector for Australia’s development efforts in Vietnam, and we believe these companies have the potential to kickstart a wave of agricultural innovation in the country,” Wood said.

Borer underlined that it is a great opportunity for an established agritech company like Koltiva with experience in the region to enter the market for sustainable production and supply chain software solutions, he added. “With eight years of experience in Indonesia, we are hungry and predestined to expand our solutions to Vietnam.”

Vietnam is an important market within Southeast Asia and establishing a local presence is a key in the Koltiva long-term strategy of becoming the market leader in the region for farm management and traceability information systems, he added.

He added Vietnam is one of the largest coffee and rubber producers globally and an important country to expand its CoffeeTrace and RubberTrace solutions, respectively. Besides access to the Vietnamese market with current single-commodity application solutions, the agritech company can add on any food- and non-food (natural resources) supply chains into KoltiTrace platforms, based on the demand of the GRAFT Challenge partner companies in Vietnam that aim to work with the company, he said.

Quang Phan, Director of the Mekong Business Initiative Company said his team was very excited that many of this year’s applicants presented digital and data-driven solutions for lingering production challenges in Vietnam. 

“We’re thrilled to start working with these scale-ups as they bring their solutions into the Vietnamese market,” Quang said.

Vingroup sets up new energy, AI subsidiaries

Two new subsidiaries under the Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup – the VinES Energy Solutions JSC (VinES) and VinAI Artificial Intelligence Application and Research JSC (VinAI) – have been established with charter capital of 1,000 billion VND (43.68 million USD) and 425 billion VND, respectively.

Founded on August 4, both companies are located at the Vinhomes Riverside urban area in Hanoi’s Long Bien district.

Vingroup contributed 51 percent of VinES’s charter capital and 99.8 percent of VinAI’s.

VinES's main business is manufacturing batteries and accumulators. Its production will complement the group's strategy on developing electric vehicles at its automotive manufacturer VinFast.

Meanwhile, VinAI works on scientific and technological research and development.

Guangzhou businesses interested in Vietnamese aquatic products

Many businesses from Guangzhou city of China have shown their interest in importing Vietnamese aquatic products, according to Le Hoang Tai, Vice Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Speaking at a recent online Vietnam-China seafood trade exchange, which drew more than 30 Vietnamese seafood producers and many Guangzhou firms, Tai held that this is a good sign for aquatic sector amid the spreading of COVID-19 in many localities, affecting the sector’s supply chain.

According to Tai, due to COVID-19 impacts, Vietnam’s export of aquatic products to Guangzhou has faced many difficulties and almost traditional trade promotion activities have been postponed or cancelled.

Earlier in November 2020, China tightened the control of frozen food import in some major trade hubs due to COVID-19 pandemic by requiring four different kinds of certificates.

Along with the using of technology platforms and social networks such as Facebook, Viber and Zalo, the Vietrade has coordinated with Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad and trade associations to organise trade promotion activities, while connecting domestic exporters, suppliers and trading service providers, and updating local firms on market developments, thus seeking markets for export products.

He expressed his hope that the event will help Vietnamese firms study needs and requirements of the Guangzhou market and seek more partners.

Guangzhou businesses highlighted their demands for many kinds of Vietnamese aquatic products such as small-sized lobsters, shrimps, catfish, craps, tuna, octopus, and sea cucumbers.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Vice Director of the Vietrade’s Export Support Centre said that a large number of orders were made at the event. Averagely, each Guangzhou firm needs 4-5 containers of aquatic products each week to serve the demand of Guangzhou and other markets in China. She added that Vietnamese firms are ready to provide the products.

Chinese firms also asked for support from the Vietrade in setting up their branches in Vietnam for aquatic product buying.

Also on August 10, the Vietrade helped connect 30 Vietnamese aquatic firms with partners in Rumania, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

The trade exchange events were part of a series of online conferences connecting consumption and boosting exports of seafood and breeding products of the Southern and Central Highlands regions hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on August 6, 9 and 10./.

E-commerce brings more momentum for economic recovery in Southeast Asia

The annual ASEAN Online Sale Day is being held from August 8 to 10, creating an avenue for retailers across various sectors to showcase their offerings and reach out to the larger regional market, China’s Xinhua reported.

Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of Southeast Asia is showing resilience by a promising e-commerce industry.

This is the second time for ASEAN members to hold the shopping event, which was initiated by Vietnam in 2020 to be a yearly event, and aims to facilitate cross-border e-commerce and to support local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of COVID-19.

Flashing ads for sales have been seen several days before the event on the websites and apps of local and cross-border e-commerce players, such as Shopee, Lazada, Zalora and JD.

From groceries, electronics, to educational and hotel services, a variety of products and services across the region can be reached with a click.

The rise of e-commerce has appeared to be the silver lining of the pandemic-stricken economy and is bringing more and more momentum to the economic recovery.

According to a recent report released by Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, 52 percent of sellers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore saw a high level of growth during the first half of 2021, with 70 percent expecting additional growth of more than 10 percent in the third quarter of 2021./.

Report on impact of IUU yellow card on Vietnam’s seafood industry released

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam on August 10 released “A Trade-Based Analysis of the Economic Impact of Non-Compliance with Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing: The Case of Vietnam”.

Speaking at the webinar to release the report, VASEP Vice President Nguyen Thi Thu Sac said that seafood is Vietnam's fifth biggest export product in terms of value, accounting for about 4 percent of the country’s export turnover. Vietnam's seafood exports in recent years have been valued at from 8.5 billion USD to nearly 9 billion USD per year.

As the third largest seafood exporter in the world, in recent years, Vietnam has focused on sustainable development of the seafood industry. However, with the characteristics of small-scale fisheries, Vietnam is facing a big challenge related to the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing yellow card warning issued by the European Commission (EC) since October 2017.

The yellow card has caused Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU market to decline continuously from 2017 until now. From 2017-2019, its seafood export turnover to the markets of the European Union decreased by 12 percent, equivalent to 183.5 million USD.

Since 2019, the EU has dropped from the 2nd position to the 4th position among Vietnam’s seafood export markets, after the US, Japan and China.

Mona Sur, the WB’s Practice Manager for Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy for East Asia and the Pacific, stated that in order to have detailed assessments of these risks, VASEP collaborated with experts from Nha Trang University and Copenhagen Business University (Denmark) to implement the analysis, under the supervision of the World Bank.

Experts warn that if Vietnam has to receive a red card from the EC, the most immediate and direct impact on Vietnamese seafood will be the EC's trade ban. At that time, it is estimated that Vietnam's seafood industry will lose about 480 million USD each year if it loses the EU market.

If Vietnam soon has the yellow card removed, and takes advantage of tariff preferences and changes of institutions from the EVFTA, the opportunity to recover and increase seafood exports to the EU market to 1.2-1.4 billion USD in the coming years is feasible.

This shows that it is necessary to have reasonable and effective solutions to make the EC soon remove the yellow card, and achieve 7-9 percent in seafood exports and 16-18 billion USD in total export turnover by 2030.

Thanh Hoa bolsters trade promotion activities

The north central province of Thanh Hoa has applied various measures to bolster trade promotion, thus expanding market for local products.

Over the years, the provincial People’s Committee has directed departments, agencies and localities to optimise the domestic market by supporting local firms and cooperatives to sell their products and expand partnership.

Since 2016, the province has held 30 trade fairs and exhibitions with the participation of thousands of producers, along with 20 trade fairs for 30 businesses to bring their products to rural and remote areas.

At the same time, the province has helped more than 200 local businesses, organisations and individuals to attend supply-demand connection conferences and trade fairs held in the locality and other cities and provinces such as Ninh Binh, Hanoi, Nghe An, Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Tinh.

In the first six months of 2021, local departments, sectors and relevant agencies coordinated with each other to arrange for local companies and producers to participate in two major trade fairs – the 30th Vietnam International Trade Fair in Hanoi and the trade promotion and supply-demand connection conference for northern central localities and the capital city of Hanoi held in Ha Tinh province.

At those two events, Thanh Hoa firms organised five pavilions to display and introduce their products, which helped them signed contracts with partners to sell dozens of kinds of products.

Alongside, at conferences held to review sectors’ performance or the implementation of socio-economic programmes, the locality has introduced typical products, thus bringing them closer to consumers.

In order to support the promotion and introduction of potential and strong products of Thanh Hoa, the provincial People’s Committee has approved the formation of 1,050 chains of production and selling of safe food products, along with the opening of 404 shops for selling and showcasing safe farm produce and nine showrooms introducing products under the “one commune-one product” (OCOP) programme of Thanh Hoa.

Currently, Thanh Hoa has 236 goods products granted  protection certificates, including four products getting geographical indications, 23 products registering intellectual property rights, and 209 agro-forestry-fisheries products by local production facilities having their labels certified.

According to the provincial Department of Science and Technology, quality certificates have helped affirmed the position of local products and promote their sales in supermarket chains and trade centres of many cities and provinces nationwide.

In reality, despite the strengthened trade promotion efforts, the efficiency of the activities remains modest, while trade promotion programmes have been small in scale and irregular in frequency, without any specific promotion strategy for particular sectors and products.

Commenting on trade promotion activities, Tran Tien Dung, head of the Office for Trade and Tourism Promotion under the Centre for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion of Thanh Hoa said that Thanh Hoa is strong in the quantity and quality of agricultural and handicraft products. The province always encourages and support local cooperatives and companies as well as producers to engage in trade fairs and exhibitions to seek markets for their products. In fact, the demand to join such events is high.

However, Dung held that there was limitation in the operation of pavilions to introduce products at trade fairs, leading to the modest efficiency.

Therefore, in order to improve the effectiveness of trade promotion activities, local departments, sectors and agencies should design more mechanisms and policies to support businesses and cooperatives to join trade fairs, especially those held outside the province, in a more effective manner, he said.

He also suggested the strengthening of communications to call for more resources from the society to enhance the efficiency of local producers’ participation in trade fairs./.

Online consultation supports agro-aquatic product exports to Netherlands

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and the Vietnamese Trade Office in the Netherlands on August 9 organised a virtual consultation serving the export of agro-aquatic products to the European market.

As part of the online conference on export and distribution promotion of farm produce and aquatic products in southern and Central Highlands regions, the event attracted over 100 representatives from Vietnamese agencies, organisations and exporters.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, deputy head of Vietrade’s export assistance centre, key products listed by Vietnamese exporters include fresh and processed fruits, mushrooms, processed cashews, and shrimps.

At the consultation, Vo Thi Ngoc Diep, Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in the Netherlands, and Pham Van Hien, Director of the LTP Import Export B.V., answered over 20 questions raised by Vietnamese firms.

Diep stressed the European market is open without any priorities and restrictions on agro-aquatic products, adding the country’s willingness to import those meeting the European and its requirements, and local demand.

Since August 2020, Vietnam and the EU, of which the Netherlands is a member, have implemented their Free Trade Agreement (EUVFTA), offering many tax incentives and opportunities for Vietnamese exporters.

Diep said a large number of Vietnamese firms have ultilised certificates of origin (C/O) issued for exports to the EU to access the Netherlands’s preferential import tariffs.

Highlighting advantages of Vietnamese aquatic products in the Netherlands, the official pointed to the products’ competition against those from Bangladesh, India and Ecuador, among other nations, in recent years.

She informed that the Netherlands now mainly imports fresh fruits from South America thanks to advantages in terms of transport duration and prices.

Diep advised Vietnamese firms to seek ways to compete and boost the quality of their products.

For his part, Hien said 50 percent of his company’s total imports are from Vietnam and expressed his wish to increase the proportion.

He recommended Vietnamese enterprises to use environmentally friendly packaging, as the Dutch market refuses those made of plastics. He also underscored the need to ensure food safety and pesticide residues within the allowable limits for fresh and dried fruits and vegetables./.

State budget collection up 15.6 percent in seven months

Total state budget revenue reached 912.1 trillion VND (39.74 billion USD) in the first seven months of 2021, equaling 67.9 percent of the estimate and up 15.6 percent year-on-year, data released by the Ministry of Finance on August 9 showed.

The ministry said the domestic collection during January-July hit 744 trillion VND, 65.6 percent of the estimate and increasing by 12.9 percent year-on-year.

Revenue from import-export activities were 145.4 trillion VND, equivalent to 81.5 percent of the estimate and up 37.5 percent annually.

Meanwhile, state budget spending was estimated at 810.6 trillion VND during the period, equal to 48 percent of the estimate.

A total of 4.2 trillion VND from the central budget and nearly 2.4 trillion VND from local budgets were channeled into the fight against COVID-19 prevention and control.

More room for Vietnamese dragon fruit exports to India

India, a South Asian nation with a population of more than 1.36 billion, is offering Vietnam a great chance to export its dragon fruit to this market as the fruit is the favourite with Indians, according to experts.

The Vietnamese Trade Promotion Agency reports India imports 95% of its demand for dragon fruit from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, of which Vietnam makes up the majority.

Over the past five years, the export value of the Vietnamese dragon fruit to India has increased considerably, from 26% in 2015 to 52% in 2020.

“Nearly 60% of the Indian people are vegetarian and their staple food consists of only vegetables and fruits. Therefore, India is an extremely large market for Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exporters,” says Vietnamese Ambassador to India Pham Sanh Chau.

Sharing the view, Vu Ba Phu, director of the Trade Promotion Agency, states Indians prefer dragon fruit because the fruit is nutritious, beneficial to health, and has an aromatic taste.

“This is a lucrative market for the Vietnamese fruit, especially when the two countries have constituted a fairly complete legal corridor through government-level cooperation documents,” notes Phu.

However, he reveals that India is not a highly demanding market and it prefers to care about the price of the product rather than product quality and standards.

“Businesses should be aware that the per capita income of the Indian people is still lower than that of Vietnam and the domestic fruit price in India is rather low due to the subsidy policy of the government. So, they should carefully study market characteristics, product prices, and standards to suit the market,” he suggests.

Meanwhile, Huynh Thuy Vy, member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Association in India, points out that businesses must pay special attention to payment methods.

“Businesses should care about the 30% deposit payment method when signing the sales contract with their Indian counterparts,” Vy shares the experience. “After receiving and examining goods, the partners will pay the remaining 70% to avoid disputes and risks.”

According to Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing difficulty in shipping the fruit to India. However, he says the Vietnamese Embassy and relevant agencies try to connect Vietnamese and Indian businesses in order to export the fruit, as well as its processed products to India.

Strengthened int'l cooperation vital to development of Halal industry: Workshop

A workshop was held virtually by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 10 to seek ways to beef up international cooperation for the development of Halal industry in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Quang Hieu said the event is one of the ministry’s initiatives to boost Vietnamese exports to the Halal market and build a strategic and comprehensive plan for the industry in Vietnam.

The global Halal market is very large but Vietnam’s market share is quite modest as Vietnamese producers have been struggling to obtain Halal certification, according to participants at the event.

Additionally, Halal standards and regulations are increasingly tightened and a Halal certification is not permanent and equally recognised by countries. Vietnamese firms are also facing stiff competition from many rivals who have already established strong footholds in the Islamic markets.

Despite all these, the global Halal market remains promising for Vietnam as the country holds competitive edges in food production, tourism, textile and garment, and pharmaceuticals, which are dubbed as pillars of the Halal economy.

It has also signed many free trade agreements (FTAs), including a number of new-generation deals, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

In order to not miss any chance to access the Halal market, it is critical for Vietnam to step up international cooperation to shape suitable strategies for the development of the Halal industry.

New impetus needed to achieve 2021 economic growth target: experts

Economic experts have emphasised the need to have a new impetus to improve economic growth in the remaining months of 2021 towards realising the growth target for the year set by the Government and the National Assembly.

Vietnam’s economic growth is forecast to expand by 6% this year.

According to Le Trung Hieu from the General Statistics Office, the country’s GDP growth in the first six months increased by 5.64%.

It is difficult to achieve the yearly growth target of 6.5% set by the Government amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is weakening the internal capacity of the national economy.

To realise the growth target of 6% required in the National Assembly’s Resolution on socio-economic development plan in 2021, Hieu said that the economic growth needs to rise by 6.3% in the last six months of the year.

This goal is completely feasible if the epidemic is controlled soon, and synchronous solutions of the Government proves effective, he noted.

Economic experts agreed that the economic growth in the remaining months of the year completely depends on the ability to control the pandemic.

Nguyen Minh Cuong - Chief economist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Vietnam underlined the importance of vaccination in the time to come, saying that this is the drive and the hope for economic recovery.

Apart from accelerating vaccination campaigns, it is necessary to speed up disbursement of public investment because it still plays a leading role in economic growth, he said.

Online consultation supports agro-aquatic product exports to Netherlands

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and the Vietnamese Trade Office in the Netherlands on August 9 organised a virtual consultation serving the export of agro-aquatic products to the European market.

As part of the online conference on export and distribution promotion of farm produce and aquatic products in southern and Central Highlands regions, the event attracted over 100 representatives from Vietnamese agencies, organisations and exporters.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, deputy head of Vietrade’s export assistance centre, key products listed by Vietnamese exporters include fresh and processed fruits, mushrooms, processed cashews, and shrimps.

At the consultation, Vo Thi Ngoc Diep, Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in the Netherlands, and Pham Van Hien, Director of the LTP Import Export B.V., answered over 20 questions raised by Vietnamese firms.

Diep stressed the European market is open without any priorities and restrictions on agro-aquatic products, adding the country’s willingness to import those meeting the European and its requirements, and local demand.

Since August 2020, Vietnam and the EU, of which the Netherlands is a member, have implemented their Free Trade Agreement (EUVFTA), offering many tax incentives and opportunities for Vietnamese exporters.

Diep said a large number of Vietnamese firms have ultilised certificates of origin (C/O) issued for exports to the EU to access the Netherlands’s preferential import tariffs.

Highlighting advantages of Vietnamese aquatic products in the Netherlands, the official pointed to the products’ competition against those from Bangladesh, India and Ecuador, among other nations, in recent years.

She informed that the Netherlands now mainly imports fresh fruits from South America thanks to advantages in terms of transport duration and prices.

Diep advised Vietnamese firms to seek ways to compete and boost the quality of their products.

For his part, Hien said 50% of his company’s total imports are from Vietnam and expressed his wish to increase the proportion.

He recommended Vietnamese enterprises to use environmentally friendly packaging, as the Dutch market refuses those made of plastics. He also underscored the need to ensure food safety and pesticide residues within the allowable limits for fresh and dried fruits and vegetables.

State budget collection up 15.6% in seven months

Total state budget revenue reached VND912.1 trillion (US$39.74 billion) in the first seven months of 2021, equaling 67.9% of the estimate and up 15.6% year-on-year, data released by the Ministry of Finance on August 9 showed.

The ministry said the domestic collection during January-July hit VND744 trillion, 65.6% of the estimate and increasing by 12.9% year-on-year.

Revenue from import-export activities were VND145.4 trillion, equivalent to 81.5% of the estimate and up 37.5% annually.

Meanwhile, state budget spending was estimated at VND810.6 trillion during the period, equal to 48% of the estimate.

A total of VND 4.2 trillion from the central budget and nearly VND2.4 trillion from local budgets were channeled into the fight against COVID-19 prevention and control.

Local fruit exports to China face array of hurdles

Vietnamese fruit exports and other farm produce to the Chinese market have been temporarily suspended due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Le Thanh Hoa, deputy director of the MARD’s Agro Processing and Market Development Authority, reveals that customs clearance procedures of Vietnamese dragon fruit exports at the Mong Cai border gate in Quang Ninh province to China have slowed. Indeed, at present only between 20 and 30 trucks per day are permitted to pass through due to ongoing disinfection work at the site.

The move comes after China’s Hekou district decided to temporarily suspend the import of Vietnamese dragon fruit from July 18 to August 17 due to the resurgence of virus cases in Vietnam.

They said whether the import resumes will largely depend on the pandemic control situation in Vietnam, as well as risk assessments by relevant agencies.

The Chinese side also moved to temporarily halt receiving Vietnamese trucks to the ASEAN Fruit Center via the Tan Thanh Border Gate from July 30.

These moves are anticipated to reduce the movement of vehicles and cut down on Vietnamese agricultural exports to Chinese market in the near future.

Currently, China represents the largest importer of Vietnamese fruit and vegetables. Vietnamese agro-forestry-fisheries exports to the Chinese market hit approximately US$5.5 billion, of which 26.9% came from fruit and vegetable exports.

To remove these hurdles for fruit exports, the Plant Protection Department has closely worked alongside Chinese authorities to devise plant quarantine procedures aimed at facilitating customs clearance for Vietnamese goods.

Lieu Anh Minh, deputy director of the Lang Son Department of Industry and Trade, has advised local firms to regularly update information regarding import and export activities at border gates in order to work out an export plan to avoid congestion of goods amid the increasingly complicated nature of the pandemic.

Mekong Delta shrimp exporters shrug off COVID problems

Shrimp businesses in the Mekong Delta, the country’s main producer and exporter of the crustacean, have been able to sustain both despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ca Mau City has the largest number of shrimp processing and exporting businesses in the delta.

Nguyen Thanh Phuong, head of the city’s Economy Department, said 14 businesses had registered to have more than 6,000 employees living on their premises to continue with production, with some large businesses even renting hotels and kindergartens for accommodation.

In Bac Lieu Province, seafood processing businesses have huge payrolls and so arranging accommodation is more challenging, according to Phan Van Sau, director of the province Department of Industry and Trade.

But with the pandemic under control, the province only seeks to ensure businesses comply with all preventive measures, and so the number of on-site staff at a given time has been declining.

If the pandemic worsens, local authorities would consider temporarily closing businesses that could not comply with safety regulations, he said.

According to many delta provinces, the prices of raw shrimp have been fluctuating, dropping by up to VND10,000 (US$0.43) per kilogramme at the start of August when provinces extended social distancing.

Amid the pandemic, harvesting, trading and transportation of products have been affected, processing plants have had to cut down on worker numbers, which has caused output to fall, and containers are often stuck at ports and inspection checkpoints.

Nevertheless, the country’s shrimp exports in the first seven months of the year increased by 15.5 per cent year-on-year to around 240,000 tonnes.

Revenues grew by 16 per cent to US$2.19 billion.

Export to the US, Japan and the EU grew sharply.

According to the Viet Nam Industry and Trade Information Centre, global demand for shrimp is on the rise, especially in large markets.

With supply from other countries taking a hit from the pandemic, Viet Nam’s exports in the next few months are likely to rise enormously due to the numerous free trade agreements it has and its production remaining steady.

Shrimp exports from delta provinces will remain abundant due to the many sales contracts businesses there have signed, but rising transport costs and potential COVID-related complications remain major challenges, according to many provinces.

Viet Nam targets shrimp exports of $4 billion this year.

Vietnam introduces products at Hong Kong Food Expo 2021

The Vietnam Trade Office in Hong Kong is displaying food products at Hong Kong Food Expo 2021 which is taking place from August 12 -16.

A number of other trade fairs including Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair, Hong Kong International Tea Fair, Home Delights Expo, and Beauty & Wellness Expo, also kicked off at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on August 12.

According to Vietnamese Consul General in Hong Kong (China) Pham Binh Dam, Hong Kong is a large trade transshipment centre, and the annual food expo always attracts a large number of food producers, importers and exporters all over the world.

This year’s event saw the participation of over 880 enterprises worldwide. It aims to introduce and promote the food industry of Hong Kong and other countries.

The expo also offers a good chance for businesses to promote their trademarks and look for importers and exporters in the field of food production and technology. It is expected to welcome over 20,000 visitors per day.

In 2019, the event attracted 1,578 producers, traders and distributors of food and beverages, food-related products and services from Australia, Canada, mainland China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan (China), Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the US and Vietnam.

Last year, the food expo was not held due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic./.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/SGGP/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes