However, to realize the goal, the country should earn US$12.9 billion from exports in the remaining months of the year.

The ministry said, the country’s total export turnover has been estimated to reach US$35.2 billion over the past nine months, up 19.4 percent compared to the same period last year, fulfilling 75.3 percent of the government’s set target FOR 2007.

Domestic enterprises fetched US$15.4 billion in export turnover, making up 43.7 percent of the country’s total export turnover while foreign-invested enterprises earned US$19,8 billion from exports, accounting for 56.2 percent of the total export turnover.

According to the statistics, since the beginning of the year, Vietnam’s key export items have posted a high turnover. Particularly, garment and textile exports earned US$5.8 billion, up 31.7 percent against the same period last year, making these products the country’s leading export items.

It is estimated that garment and textile export turnover will reach US$7.5 billion this year, up 20 percent. Electronics and computer spare parts posted US$1.513 billion in export turnover, up 23.6 percent while wood exports reached US$1.7 billion, up 24.8 percent.

It is forecast that this year wood exports will reach US$2.5 billion, up 29.5 percent while coal exports will be US$745 million, up 18.8 percent in quantity and up 17.2 percent in value.

These are impressive export figures over recent months. According to the MoIT, Vietnam aims to earn more than US$58.6 billion from exports in 2008. To reach this goal, it is necessary to focus on developing auxiliary industries to increase the supply source of materials to produce goods for export. In addition, it is also important to improve the quality of products, expand markets and accurately predict the market.

It is essential to develop mutual technical and food hygiene and safety standards between Vietnam and foreign trade partners in order to avoid losses caused by subsidy barriers.

In addition, the Government, ministries and agencies should work out specific measures to support each type of export business.

Tran Thanh Hai, director of the Hai Van agricultural product import-export company, said that banks should loosen credit limits to boost the development of Vietnam’s agricultural products.

Nguyen Van Thong, deputy director of Hoa Tien garment and textile company, called on the Government to develop policies to create more favourable conditions for the garment and textile sector.

According to Mr Thong, the labour force in the sector fluctuates 20 percent/year and the number of workers in the sector has been reduced as they were attracted by other sectors.

At present, the Government has provided VND1 million in aid for training one worker, but the sum was only VND500,000/person in localities. In particular, a number of localities have received no aid.

Despite many difficulties in increasing export growth, most businesses pin high hope on the Government’s decisive policies in the near future.

They asked the Government to provide more support and resolve problems relating to administrative and customs procedures.

It is also necessary to have appropriate measures to take advantage of Vietnam’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership.
Source: Vneconomy