In the past few years, Binh Duong's key exportation sectors such as mobile phones and components, textiles, footwear and woodwork have experienced strong growth thanks to the efficient exploitation of large markets of APEC economies. As a result, enterprises in the province have strengthened their internal force and developed strongly to join the global supply chain.
Major markets
In the first 9 months of 2017, Vietnam has 8 commodity groups with total turnover of US$ 1 billion. Textile and garment exports reached US$ 9.25 billion, increasing by 9.5% over the same period last year and accounting for nearly 30% of total export value of Vietnamese goods to the US. This is also the largest market for Vietnamese textile and apparel imports. In 2016, the export turnover of this item to the US reached US$ 11.45 billion, increasing by 4.6% compared to 2015, accounting for 48% of total export turnover of textile and garment of the country. Meanwhile, footwear exports to the US in the first nine months of 2017 reached US$ 3.76 billion, increasing by 13.7% over the same period last year and accounting for 12% of the total value of Vietnamese goods to the US. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), said that export growth of the textile and garment sector was largely thanks to the main markets of APEC economies such as the US, Japan and South Korea.
APEC economies are the major exporting markets of enterprises of Binh Duong Province. In this photo: Garment production is on-going at Chutex International Co. Ltd. (in Song Than Industrial Park III). Photo: Xuan Thi
In 2016, the US, Japan, South Korea and China contributed US$ 86 billion to the total export value of US$ 175.9 billion. Specifically, the US market contributed US$ 38.1 billion increasing by 10%, Japan US$ 14.6 billion increasing by 3.4%, South Korea US$ 11.5 billion increasing by 29%, and China US$ 21.8 billion.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, APEC with 21 member economies, accounting for 59% of the population and more than 50% of GDP and 57% of global trade is a large and potential market for Vietnamese enterprises to access and exploit. APEC economies are currently accounted for 60% of the exportation and 80% of the importation value of Vietnam. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 18 of the 15 free trade agreements have been signed by Vietnam with APEC member economies. APEC member economies are in the top 10 of Vietnam's largest export markets, namely the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
For enterprises in Binh Duong, the market of APEC economies accounts for a large proportion of export turnover. Most of the export goods of enterprises in the area focus on some major markets in APEC such as USA, Japan, South Korea, and China. Only in 10 months 2017, businesses in Binh Duong continued to promote exports to APEC markets, contributing significantly to the total export turnover of the province at approximately US$ 24 billion in the past 10 months.
Tremendous force for enterprise development
The trend of promoting trade liberalization and facilitation in APEC has opened up great opportunities for the business community in Vietnam, especially small and medium enterprises which are the main business group of Binh Duong. According to many experts, the past years have shown that the Vietnamese business community in general and Binh Duong in particular have been making good use of opportunities to access of the Asia Pacific markets brought about by the cooperation in APEC, showing that Vietnam's export turnover to member economies has increased steadily, from US$ 98.37 billion in 2014 to over US$ 119.69 billion in 2016.
For Binh Duong, in the first nine months of 2017, the province's general export activities continued to maintain steady growth over the same period of 2016, with turnover reaching US$ 20.4 billion, increasing by 17.3% compared to the same period last year and reached 72.6% of the plan in 2017. The key export items of the province achieved high growth in export turnover and accounted for a large proportion of total import-export turnover of the province. In addition, agricultural exports such as coffee, pepper and cashew nuts have seen relatively high growth rates compared to the same period in 2016. This growth is mainly thanks to APEC's key markets such as the US, Japan, and Korea.
However, to better exploit the APEC market, Binh Duong needs more effective solutions in the coming time. In particular and in addition to efforts to improve technology, cost savings, and product value of the business community, need the support and support of the state management agencies. In other words, in order for the export sector to develop sustainably, it requires Vietnam in general and Binh Duong in particular to have more sustainable solutions for production development and economic restructuring. It should focus on improving the productivity, quality and value of export products while paying attention to saving resources and protecting the environment. These are the general directions that the provincial Party Committee, the People's Council and the provincial People's Committee have set up and implemented during the calling time, selecting reputable and effective investors to produce and do business in the locality. Therefore, businesses in the province will have more resources from the mechanism and policies to maximize the potential and advantages of exporting goods to APEC member countries in particular and the world in general.
(To be continued)
Reported by Minh Nguyen – Translated by Vi Bao
