Increases in production and trade are driving the economy forward

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has signed and enacted Official Telegram No.126/CD-TTg sent to ministers, heads of ministerial agencies, government agencies, and chairpersons of people’s committees of centrally-managed provinces and cities. PM Chinh requests them to roll up their sleeves to drastically and effectively implement the country’s Programme on Socio-economic Recovery and Development promulgated nearly two weeks ago.

“They must proactively review and remove or propose authorise agencies to phase out all obstructions for domestic production and business activities,” the telegram stated. “They must also accelerate the removal, reduction, and simplification of administrative procedures for a more business-friendly climate. The procedures must be increasingly processed online, while innovation is strongly encouraged with the boost of digital transformation, development of a digital economy, a green economy, and a circular economy closely connected with sustainable development.”

A number of key sectors enjoyed a high on-year rise included exploitation of ores and metal (21.9%); products from fabricated metal (16.8%) excluding machinery and equipment; clothes (11.4%), electricity equipment (11.5%); leather and leather-based products (11.3%), textiles (8.8%), and other manufacturing and processing products (15.3%).
According to the GSO, the growth rate for the whole 2021 is estimated to sit at 2.58% – with the rates of 4.72 and 6.73% for the first and second quarters. It declined by 6.02% in the third quarter due to serious resurgence of COVID-19 which heavily affected the economy’s all sectors and drove hundreds of thousands of enterprises into halted production and business. After that, the economy is estimated to expand 5.22% on-year in the last quarter of 2021, higher than the on-year 4.61% in the corresponding period last year.

Showing its optimism over the Vietnamese economic outlook, the World Bank said in its December 2021 bulletin that, in the country, “Eeconomic conditions continued to improve. Both industrial production and retail sales registered a third month of growth,” said . “Merchandise exports hit a record high of 34.5 billion USD in December, helping maintain a third consecutive month of trade surplus while foreign direct investment (FDI) commitment recovered after a brief dip in October.”

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said that in 2022, his ministry will continue working with localities to tap into and take advantage of free trade agreements in order to develop markets and remove impediments for enterprises.

“We will continue implementing activities about trade promotion, while keeping close eyes on markets in order to determine what types of goods we will export to now and in the coming time,” Tan said. “Also, to win in the new markets, enterprises should diversify their product portfolio and improve their product competitiveness, as well as have sound strategies on brand name development.”

According to fresh figures from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in January 2022, total export turnover of Vietnam hit 30.84 billion USD, an on-year climb of 8.1%. Total import turnover reached 29.45 billion USD, up 11.3% as compared to that in the corresponding period last year. All of these resulted in a trade surplus of 1.39 billion USD.

Last October, the total export-import turnover hit 55 billion USD, up 2.4% over September, with a trade surplus of 2.74 billion USD. In November, the figure rose to 59.7 billion USD, with a trade surplus of 100 million USD, and in December, the figures touched 66.5 billion USD and 2.54 billion USD, respectively.

The total export-import value for the entire 2021 reached 668.5 billion USD, up 22.6% on-year. In which the export and import values totalled 336.25 billion USD and 332.25 billion USD, up 19 and 26.5% over those of 2020, respectively. The total trade surplus stood at 4 billion USD for last year.