This represents a far better result than previously forecasted by the General Statistics Office (GSO), with exports reaching US$29 billion, imports at US$29.5 billion, and the country’s trade deficit at US$500 million.
Specifically, export turnover hit US$30.845 billion, up 8.1% over the same period from 2021. There were seven groups of export goods with a turnover of US$1 billion or more in the first month of the year, in which some groups enjoyed high double-digit growth, such as textiles and garments, wood and wood products, means of transport and spare parts, seafood, coffee, pepper, and rice.
In the opposite direction, import turnover in January reached US$29.45 billion, a rise of 11.3% over the same period from last year. In line with this, there were six commodity groups with a turnover from US$1 billion, with computers, electronic products and components achieving the highest figure of US$7.12 billion, representing an annual rise of 25.8%.
Most notably, during the nine-day period of the first lunar month, Vietnamese goods were exported to a total of 109 countries and territories, with the majority going to the Chinese market reaching a figure of US$400 million, trailed by the United States, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong (China), and Japan.
Promoting the results achieved in import and export activities in 2021, this year the Ministry of Industry and Trade aims to exploit and take advantage of opportunities from free trade agreements (FTAs) in a bid find solutions which can boost market development. This is in addition to removing barriers to gain entry into new markets and closely monitoring the global developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic to take timely response measures.
The Ministry will primarily focus on diversifying export and import markets, especially small and niche one, along with the structure of export products to improve the competitiveness of export products, and promoting brand building.
