The ministry said the country would earn $33.5 billion in export value during the second half of the year with an average of $5.59 billion per month.

During the second half, the sectors of agriculture, fisheries and processing industry would continue growth in exports and achieve higher export value than the first half. The growth rate in export value would be 10 per cent for the agricultural and fisheries sector and 22 per cent for the processing industry.

Meanwhile, the export value of the fuel and mineral group would reduce lightly by 3.8 per cent in the second half due to reduction in export volume of coal and crude oil.

The ministry said promotion of exports in the second half would have many obstacle because of difficulties of the world economy. It listed many measures to achieve the target of 6 per cent in export value growth by the end of this year.

Deputy minister of industry and trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said the first measure was the state to remove obstacles and give supports for the sector of agriculture, forestry and fisheries for increasing consumption of farming, forest and fisheries, especially exports of those products.

The ministry would boost its supports for trade promotion activities and inform cities and provinces about interests in export of the free-trade area agreements.

Phan Van Chinh, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s import and export department, said if enterprises take advantages from the free-trade area agreements, the country is likely to achieve the target of export value at 12 per cent for the whole year.

The trade promotion department and the competitive management authority would increase trade promotion programmes and find ways to abolish trade barriers for Vietnamese goods, creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese export products to enter new markets and increase market share at current markets.

The ministry would work with other sectors and ministries to solve enterprises’ difficulty in taking capital for production, especially export products.

Besides increase of export value, the ministry would also curb imports to reduce trade deficit in 2010.

Chinh said the ministry estimated $76-77 billion in import value and $10-11 billion in trade deficit for the whole year.

Economic experts said if the enterprises do not reduce imports by using domestically-made materials, the state would be difficult to curb the trade deficit.

Bui Ba Cuong, head of the General Statistic Office’s National Account Department, said the state must be careful to set up measures on reducing the imports because so far, the consumption goods was cause of the trade deficit. Almost of imported products were machines, equipment and materials for production.

If the state controls the imports of those products, the reduction of the imported products would affect on production, Cuong said, adding that policy makers should have measures on controlling trade deficit but not affecting production.

Source: VietNamNet/Viet Nam News