Vietnam Trying to Lower Monthly Trade Deficit to under US$1Bln in Second Half

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade will keep monthly trade deficit under US$1 billion in the second half of this year in order to realize the target of reducing the year&rsquos import value to US$80.2 billion in line with the Government&rsquos requirement, US$4.8 billion lower than initially planned, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Bui Xuan Khu.

 

If the goal is realized, Vietnam&rsquos trade deficit this year is expected to stand at US$20 billion, equaling to around 30 per cent of the export revenue.

 

Measures are being taken to stabilize the market and ensure the demand-supply balance of essential goods, said Khu adding that the ministry has also paid special attention to improving the quality of the work on price foreing and warnings.

 

The ministry has also accelerated the inspection of the quality of import goods, and used technical barriers to narrow the trade deficit.

 

Additionally, the ministry has outlined a roadmap to implement compulsory energy-saving labels on household commodities from January 2010.

 

Together with efforts to reduce imports, Vietnam has also targeted to obtain an on-year export growth of 26 per cent to US$61.2 billion this year.

 

The country is estimated to earn US$6 billion from crude oil export, US$5.3 billion from garments and textiles, US$2.2 billion from seafood and footwear, and US$1.6 billion from woodwork in the second half of this year, said the MoIT.

 

To facilitate exports, the government of Vietnam has allowed 100 per cent foreign-invested enterprises to build centers of providing materials to raise the competitiveness for exports.

 

The ministry will also set up an interdisciplinary group gathering customs, banking and financial officials to promptly address difficulties for import-export production enterprises in the rest months of the year, said Khu.

 

In the first half of this year, Vietnam reaped US$29.69 billion from goods shipment in the first half of this year, an on-year increase of 31.8 per cent, and spent US$44.47 billion on imports, up 60.3 per cent, said the General Statistics Office (GSO). (Local sources)