VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's phone exports has achieved a record growth of 97.7 per cent over 2011 to reach US$12.6 billion, according to a source with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

A customer shops for smartphones at the Pico Electronics Supermarket in Ha Noi. Mobile phone exports achieved a record growth of 97.7 per cent this year to reach a value of US$12.6 billion.

However, foreign-invested companies are responsible for the bulk of this growth, market analysts say, adding that domestic firms need to tap into growth potentials created by this export surge.

The General Customs Department says that in the first half of December, the country exported 11.901 million phones of various kinds as well as phone accessories.

The phone export value in this period was up 84.7 per cent over the same period of 2011 at $55.45 million.

The phone exports have helped increase the country's export value of hi-tech commodities to $20.9 billion, up 90 per cent over the same period of 2011, accounting for 20 per cent of the country's export value.

The main importers of Vietnamese phones are the European Union, with $5.08 billion, accounting for nearly 45 per cent, following are the Arab United Emirates, which imported $1.31 billion; Russia, $690 million; and Hong Kong, $460 million.

The sharp increase in the export value of hi-tech phones is encouraging, but like many other hi-tech goods, the surge is dominated by the foreign-invested sector, market analysts say.

Moreover, these enterprises performed only part of the obligations of the prime contracts under subcontracts, they said.

According to a Viet Nam Economic Times's report, Samsung Electronics Viet Nam (SEV) and Intel are responsible for most of the country's phone export value.

SEV, for instance, expects to achieve over $10 billion in export value this year. However, the company gets its accessories and spares from the Chinese market.

This means that domestic enterprises have not made much of a contribution to the country's record export of phones.
It is predicted that Viet Nam would continue to obtain high growth rates in phone exports, reaching $12.9 billion in 2013.

Experts say that Vietnamese enterprises should intensify investment in production of spare parts and accessories to serve the production of phones so that the practice of subcontracting is reduced and more foreign exchange flows into the country.

They also say that phone exporters should expand their reach and seek new overseas markets in Africa and Latin America.

Source: VNS