Export strategy targets increased turnover
Viet Nam News, Vietnam
HA NOI — The Ministry of Trade recently announced it had finalised its 2006-10 Export Development Strategy draft, which includes a target to see average annual export turnover grow by 17.5 per cent each year.
Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu said the target was based on a ministerial economic assessment of the country’s production capacity and projected international market performance and prices.
He said 2006 was a vital year for national exports, describing it as a springboard for the subsequent five-year period. The country’s export turnover should grow by 18.5 per cent this year, he added. To meet this target, the country must focus on the production of quality high-tech and value-added products and agricultural, forestry and seafood products, he added.
Agricultural, forestry and seafood products are expected to account for $42.94 billion of the country’s total export turnover of US$271.7 billion targeted for the 2006-10 period, while industrial and handicraft products will contribute $137.4 billion, he said.
The draft stipulates export turnover from industrial and handicraft products should increase by about 22.1 per cent each year, thanks in part to expanded production resulting from more foreign direct investment projects and governmental policies to develop new markets, Tu said.
Annual export turnover growth rates among agricultural, forestry and seafood sector products will be slower, perhaps 7.7 per cent, because of limited land resources, he added.
With the new guidelines to enhance the export of high-tech, value-added products and a reduction of exports of unprocessed products, the ministry aims to develop the export sector in harmony with Viet Nam’s anticipated accession to the World Trade Organisation, said Tu.
The overall proportion of agricultural, forestry and seafood product exports should decrease from 19.1 per cent in 2006 to 13.7 per cent by 2010, while that of industrial and handicraft products is expected to increase from 45.9 per cent in 2006 to 54.1 per cent in the same period, he said. — VNS