With exports to the US, the EU, and ASEAN falling by seven percent, 10 percent, and six percent respectively, Vietnam only achieved 42.7 percent of its projected target for this year.

Major exports such as shoes and sandals, timber and wooden products, rubber, coffee, seafood, cashew nuts, pottery, rubber, electric wires and cables, and crude oil also declined in the reviewed period.

In the meantime, Vietnam spent $30.64 billion on imports, a drop of 31.6 percent from last year. The decrease was seen in both volume and revenue, and materials that serve production and export reached only 10-20 percent.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will step up the stimulation of capital construction projects in the last remaining months of 2009 with the aim of exporting $64.57 billion worth of goods (up three percent) and importing $72.6 billion worth of goods, making a trade deficit of about $11 billion.