Thua Thien-Hue province targets 12% rise in exports

The locality will diversify export commodities and seek new markets to attain the target, according to Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh.

The province, which is part of the central key economic region, will also press ahead with solutions to remove obstacles to business growth, boost the export of processed and hi-tech products while gradually reducing the proportion of unprocessed goods in the export structure.

It will also facilitate local exporters’ access to credit sources and encourage them to manufacture products that Thua Thien-Hue has strength in.

In the textile and apparel field, which is a big foreign currency earner, the province is going to call on businesses to gradually switch to free-on-board (FOB) manufacturing instead of cut-make-trim (CMT), thereby improving export value and workers’ income, Thanh noted.

Thua Thien-Hue raked in US$717 million from exports in 2016, up 7.74% from the previous year. That consisted of US$292 million of overseas shipments by domestic companies and US$424 million made by foreign invested firms, respectively rising by 4.91% and 9.78% from a year earlier.

Up to 65% of total shipments was contributed by garment exports, which hit a record of over US$465 million last year, up 8.98% from 2015. This result was attributable to product diversification, increased FOB manufacturing, higher productivity, and better product quality.

Meanwhile, fibre and textile exports brought home US$117 million, climbing 18.89% and making up 16.32% of the province’s total shipments.

Aquatic exports approximated US$47 million last year, a year-on-year increase of 26.62%, data shows.