Key provinces and cities in the southern region such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai are being severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, thanks to an impressive start in the first months of the year, by the end of July, import and export of the whole country, including key southern provinces and cities, still achieved impressive growth.

Export growth rate of six key localities (turnover of US$10 billion or more)
in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period in 2020.
Chart: T.Binh

Good growth thanks to a good start

At the seminar "Customs accompanies businesses during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic" organized by Customs NEws on August 18, Deputy Director of Binh Duong Customs Department Nguyen Truong Giang said that until the end of the year, on August 17, Binh Duong province had more than 50,000 people infected with Covid-19 out of a total of more than 2.5 million people, which caused many difficulties for businesses' production.

Specifically, the number of declarations at the Department (updated from July 15 to August 15), decreased sharply by 42% compared to the previous months, import and export turnover decreased by over 32%.

“Every year, Binh Duong Customs carries out procedures for about 6,000 businesses, of which about 2,000 businesses carry out regular procedures. However, due to the pandemic, many businesses have temporarily suspended operations. Of which, there are about 600 enterprises with regular import and export activities," said Nguyen Truong Giang.

Representatives of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, Dong Nai Customs Department also provided information about the difficulties of the business community in the area, such as many businesses do not meet the requirement of "3 on the spot", "1 road, 2 destinations", as well as a lack of workers. So many businesses temporarily stopped operating. With the number of enterprises, many businesses can only maintain about 20% to 30% of their capacity because of the requirements of pandemic prevention and control, the problem of organizing accommodation for workers.

In fact, the latest statistics of the General Department of Customs have recorded that the three largest economic centers in the South, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai, all decreased.

Specifically, Ho Chi Minh City only reached US$3 billion, down about US$1.4 billion; Binh Duong reached US$2.95 billion, down about US$350 million; Dong Nai reached US$1.93 billion, down more than US$200 million.

In general, in seven months, Ho Chi Minh City is still the locality with the largest export turnover in the country with US$26.6 billion, up 8.2% over the same period last year.

Especially, despite facing difficulties, in the past seven months, export growth was very impressive with a turnover of US$20.4 billion, up 44% compared to the same period last year. equivalent to an increase in turnover of more than US$6 billion.

Thanks to the strong growth, Binh Duong along with Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ninh (reaching US$22.4 billion) are three localities with export turnover of US$20 billion or more by the end of July.

Dong Nai's exports also had a high growth of 34.2% over the same period last year and reached US$14.65 billion.

Sustainable growth

The latest statistical data of the General Department of Customs on the market and key commodities have created confidence in import and export activities when the relevant indicators are all positive.

Regarding the market, Vietnam's merchandise trade with Asia reached US$241.84 billion, up 31.5% over the same period in 2020, continuing to account for the highest proportion (64.5%) of the total of import and export value of the country.

In addition, the remaining four continents also achieved double-digit growth. Specifically, import and export between Vietnam and other continents are: the Americas reached US$78.77 billion, up 35.4%; Europe reached US$41.73 billion, up 17.9%; Oceania reached US$7.94 billion, up 45.3%; Africa reached US$4.84 billion, up 29.2% over the same period in 2020.

With key industries, both exports and imports have seen high growth. Of the US$38.68 billion in export turnover, important contributing groups such as machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts increased by US$7.33 billion; computers, electronic products and components increased by US$4.06 billion; phones and components increased by US$3.54 billion.

By the end of July, there were five groups of exports with a turnover of US$10 billion or more, including: phones and components (reaching US$29.78 billion); computers, electronic products and components (US$27.56 billion); machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts (US$20.03 billion); textiles (US$18.46 billion); footwear (US$11.8 billion).

For imports, out of US$49.78 billion of added turnover, machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts also had the largest increase with US$7.35 billion. Next, computers, electronic products and components increased by US$7.15 billion; phones and components increased by US$3.56 billion.

The three groups of goods above are also tens of billions of dollars of imports by the end of July. In which, computers, electronic products and components (US$39.88 billion); machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts (US$27.17 billion); phones and components (US$10.71 billion).