Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended a ceremony to mark Vietnam’s import-export reaching the 500 billion USD level held in Hanoi on December 30.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (centre) at the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

At the ceremony, the Government leader also set the target for the country’s export of 300 billion USD next year, asking ministries, authorities and localities to closely join hands together to make it the fifth consecutive year of Vietnam’s trade surplus.

He noted that Vietnam’s economy has made vigorous changes in the context of the complicated world’s economic and political situation, and that the country has remained for long in the list of the 30 countries and territories with the highest import and export values. In the ASEAN, Vietnam ranks the third after Singapore and Thailand.

It was reported that Vietnam has recorded a constant surplus in its trade following a long deficit. In the first 11 months of this year, the country’s trade surplus amounted to 10.94 billion USD.

China, the US and Japan used to be the three largest trade partners of Vietnam but since 2013, the Republic of Korea has officially surpassed Japan to become the country’s third largest commodity trade partner.

Commending ministries, authorities and localities for their contributions to the achievement of the 500 billion USD level in import and export, PM Phuc also spoke highly of their concerted involvement. He praised the Ministry of Industry and Trade and others in negotiating free trade agreements, and spoke highly of the processing sector of the plantation wood that brought back to the country over 11 billion USD, and the agriculture with over 41 billion USD.

The leader said that in the time to come, Vietnam needs to take advantage of the chances and bring into play the efficiency of the collaboration among the ministries and sectors. The country’s exports should be recomposed in the direction of reducing raw exports and increasing processed commodities, he stressed, adding that in the time to come, institutional reforms and those of administrative procedures must be continued so as to further facilitate import and export activities.

Setting a goal of 300 billion USD in export for the next year, PM Phuc ordered relevant ministries, authorities and localities to closely join hands together so as to make it the fifth consecutive year in which Vietnam record trade surplus. Besides, attention must also be paid to the fight against frauds in origins and smuggling so as to create a fair, open and transparent business environment, along with the boosting of the supporting industry.