Total trade turnover has recently exceeded $400 billion, a four-fold increase in the decade since 2007 and a major milestone for Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said on December 19.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, import and export turnover stood at $30 billion in 2001. Six years later, the figure rose to $100 billion after Vietnam joined the WTO. By 2011, trade had doubled to $200 billion and then stood at $300 billion in 2015.

Trade turnover broke thought the $400-billion mark in mid-December and Vietnam Customs expects the annual figure to come in at $410 billion.

Vietnam’s exports rose from 50th in 2007 to 26th in 2016 in the WTO rankings, while its imports moved from 41st in 2007 to 25th in 2016 and will continue upwards this year.

“Export-import turnover increasing from $30 billion to $400 billion is a miracle,” Deputy PM Hue said. In 1990, he explained, trade turnover was just $2.5 billion, compared to $26 billion in Africa. Africa’s trade now stands at just $100 billion.

Among the many export achievements, fruit and vegetables have been positive this year. In the first eleven months, growth in fruit and vegetable exports reached nearly 44 per cent year-on-year and exceeded the figure for 2016 as a whole. The 2017 figure is expected to reach $3.5 billion, surpassing both rice and oil exports.

On December 18, in the Mekong Delta’s Dong Thap province, the Provincial People’s Committee, the Institute of Organic Agriculture Economics, and two companies - Vietnam’s Lavifood Company and China’s Greenland Business Group - signed the first import agreement sending Vietnamese agricultural products to China, worth at least $500 million over two years.

VN Economic Times