Illustrative image. (Source: Lloyds)

Each year, over 100 billion USD of goods made in Vietnam are exported to Northeast Asian markets, including such big importers as China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, and China’s Taiwan and Hong Kong.

To date, all important partners in Northeast Asia have signed and participated in both bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with Vietnam such as the Vietnam-RoK FTA (VKFTA), the Vietnam - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).

Notably, these FTAs are a factor that supports the development of trade and investment exchanges with regional countries and also helps Vietnam participate deeply in the regional and world supply chains.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang said that to promote exports to this region, many new cooperation mechanisms have been built to create favourable conditions for the business community.

So far this year, Vietnam has implemented an action plan to carry out the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Guangxi on strengthening cooperation in economics and trade in the 2024 – 2026 period with the Chinese province; set up the Vietnam-RoK centre for essential minerals supply; and continued to build new cooperation mechanisms such as an MoU on strengthening cooperation in agricultural trade with the Ministry of Commerce of China.

In addition, the ministry has provided market information and guidance on access to Northeast Asian markets; organised conferences on FTAs to increase support for the business community to seize and exploit advantages from these deals; and coordinated with and assisted localities to step up trade promotion, remove difficulties at border gates, and expand the export of key and seasonal agricultural products such as lychee, rice, durian, and dragon fruit to China, Japan and the RoK.

As a result, the total export revenue to this region neared 50 billion USD, of which 22.6 billion USD was from China, up 10.2%, 10.4 billion USD from the RoK, up 12.8%, and 9.5 billion USD from Japan, up 4.7% against the same period last year.