Maintaining export growth

The increase is low compared to the first six months last year (up 9.2% over the same period in 2014). 

Experts said that the decline in export prices, including the price of crude oil and industrial processing products, caused the situation. 

In the first six months, the world’s oil prices continued to drop, reaching a 13-year low of US$27, affecting activities in oil and gas exploitation, mining and exports. 

The revenue from crude oil over the past six months reached only US$1.1 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 46.6%.

The global economy has recovered slowly with many key economies in the world facing difficulties, negatively impacting Vietnam’s exports. 

Trade volumes in many markets which were key importers of Vietnamese products are showing signs of decline or slow increase, including the Japanese market (down 11.3% in exports and 13.8% in imports) and Europe (a decrease of 1% in exports and 3% in imports).

The exchange rate, interest rate and price movements of several fuels and materials for manufacturing in the world market also made the prices of many key export commodities in the country lower than the same period last year. 

Specifically, the exports of agricultural and fishery products in the world went down by US$507 million.

In addition, the severe drought and saltwater intrusion affected agricultural exports in Vietnam. 

In this year’s winter-spring crop, rice cultivation area was down 31,300 hectares and rice production was down 1.3 million tonnes over the same period last year. 

Rice exports brought only US$1.3 billion in the past six months of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7%.

The world economy is still facing numerous difficulties as demand and export prices around the world continue to decrease. 

The situation requires the Vietnamese government, branches, agencies and localities to made more efforts to practically and effectively implement policies and measures to achieve the target of reaching 10% export growth this year. 

Solutions are also needed to bring the position of the country’s industry and trade higher in the global value chain.

The international integration process not only brings opportunities for exports, but also highlights challenges, including outdated production technology, limited management capacity and weak competitiveness. 

In addition to improvement of the quality and competitiveness of products, both the State and enterprises should promote trade in order to effectively expand market. 

Trade promotion programmes need to be methodically organised, focusing on commodities with strengths in exports and countries that have signed free trade agreements with Vietnam, particularly major partners such as the United States, Japan and EU.

It is essential to promote the role of Vietnamese agencies abroad in supporting businesses in expanding their markets and sharing information about the host countries, as well as advising the government on policies.