Export - A driving force contributing to socio-economic stability

(Baonghean) - Ms. Vo Thi An - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade gave an interview to Nghe An Newspaper about some contents revolving around the export situation, and the Export Development Project in Nghe An province for the period 2016 - 2020.

PV:Madam, it is known that in recent years, exports in the province have continuously grown. Specifically, what outstanding results has Nghe An achieved in export activities in the recent period?

Ms. Vo Thi An:It must be affirmed that with continuous growth in many criteria: turnover, market, goods, participating subjects, ... export has become one of the important driving forces to increase production development, contribute to socio-economic stability and contribute to the provincial budget. The export value in 2015 of enterprises located in the area ranked 35th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide and ranked 3rd in the North Central region.

In terms of scale, last year's export turnover reached 705.1 million USD compared to the planned target of 550 million USD, exceeding the planned target by 28.2%. Of which, the export turnover of goods reached 463.2 million USD/the planned target of 330 million USD.

Nghe An's booth at the Central Highlands Supply-Demand Connection Conference 2016.

The growth rate in recent years has also reached an average of 11.14%/year, along with positive changes in the structure of export goods. The proportion of raw, unprocessed goods has decreased, the proportion of industrial, processed goods has increased, accounting for an increasingly large proportion of the total export turnover of the province.

Another notable result is that the province's export market has received much attention and continues to expand. Specifically, by 2015, Nghe An enterprises had exported goods to 96 regional and international markets, with 2 markets reaching a turnover of over 50 million USD (China, Korea), 9 markets reaching a turnover of over 10 million USD, and dozens of markets reaching a turnover of over 1 million USD.

PV:Besides the encouraging "sweet fruits" mentioned above, according to you, what are the remaining shortcomings and limitations of Nghe An's exports?

Mrs. Vo Thi An: In the context of increasingly deep integration into the world economy, it must be frankly acknowledged that the province's conditions for goods production, competitiveness and infrastructure for export are still quite limited. Despite positive changes, the scale of exported goods is not commensurate with the province's potential and advantages, growth is not high, and the average export turnover per capita is low compared to the national average.

In addition, the structure of exported goods has changed significantly, but the proportion of primary processed agricultural, forestry and seafood products is still high, the proportion of high-value processed industrial goods is still low, the variety of goods is monotonous, and new products with high turnover are few. Worryingly, some traditional export products that were previously strong points such as peanuts, frozen aquatic and seafood, processed livestock products, etc. have increasingly decreased turnover, and are even no longer listed in the list of exported goods.

The Department also struggles a lot when admitting that our export goods are still poor, weakly competitive, and the quality often does not meet the requirements of "demanding" markets such as Japan, the US, the EU, etc. Nghe An does not even have a key export product, or with an insignificant market share in the list of Vietnam's top 10 export products (crude oil, textiles, footwear, aquatic products, seafood, wood products, electronic components, rice, rubber, coffee, handicrafts). In addition to the above difficulties, Nghe An is also investigating and explaining the reason why the export turnover of FDI enterprises accounts for a small proportion (only 28.3% in 2015) in the total turnover of the whole province, while on a national scale this figure is 63%.

PV:In the period of 2016 - 2020, according to forecasts, Vietnam's economy will continue to inherit the growth momentum of 2015, the world economy will recover, although slowly. In such a context, to contribute to the successful implementation of the export target set by the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress, what plans does the Department have for the coming time?

Ms. Vo Thi An:The Department of Industry and Trade has developed, completed and is submitting to the Provincial People's Committee for approval the Project "Export Development in Nghe An Province for the period 2016 - 2020", as a guideline to make export become the spearhead of the province. The general goal is to promote industrialization, modernization, enhance deep processing, apply advanced science and technology to increase the value of exported goods, striving to reach 1.2 billion USD by 2020, of which the export turnover of goods reaches 850 - 900 million USD.

During and after the conference, business connection activities in the fields of production and services continued to be promoted, aiming at sustainable development of Vietnamese brands.

From research, analysis and forecast of the international and domestic economic situation, along with consideration of the potential, development speed in the period of 2011 - 2015 and economic development resources of the province, the department proposed the development orientation of 9 main export product groups in the period of 2016 - 2020.

Of course, to effectively implement and achieve more success, it is necessary to focus on the group of solutions to promote exports, create good sources of export goods based on planning of raw material areas, develop production, and process export goods, while actively calling for domestic and foreign investment in Nghe An. In particular, in calling for investment, the province needs to prioritize enterprises with export goods.

In addition, the department will give priority to the construction of a database system on exports, promote export promotion activities through product introduction booths at international fairs, and connect trade at seminars and conferences to expand markets. In addition, solutions to improve the competitiveness of products and export enterprises, train human resources in state management agencies as well as in enterprises, review and improve mechanisms and policies to create a favorable environment for exports will be the tasks set for Nghe An's exports in the coming time.

PV:Thank you!

Phu Binh(Perform)