Nguyen Cam Trang, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade

Nguyen Cam Trang, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnam is entering a new development period with requirements in rapid and sustainable economic development based on innovation and creativity, green growth, a digital economy, and a circular economy.

The global economy in the coming years is forecast to be complicated due to geopolitical conflicts, trade wars, epidemics, and economic crisis cycles that will likely lead to supply chain disruption, energy crisis, and inflation.

Export will be one of the three pillars that the Vietnamese economy needs to be ensured for sustainable growth in the long term, requiring new policy orientations and fundamental strategic solutions.

“Over the past decade of implementing the import-export strategy for the 2011-2020 period, Vietnam's import and export activities have contributed significantly to national renovation and economic development,” said Trang, adding, “Despite impressive achievements, import and export activities haven’t fully tapped export competitive advantages based on technology, labor qualifications, and management to turn out highly competitive export products that can create high added value in the global supply and value chain.”

Therefore, the strategy for the next period will pay greater attention to the growth quality and sustainability of import-export development, according to the official.

The import-export strategy until 2030 takes into account new trends in international trade and hopes to effectively tap internal strength and integration opportunities created by new-generation free trade agreements to identify strategic priorities for import and export and select proper resources for sustainable development.

The Government's target of achieving an export growth rate of 6-7% per year until 2030 is not high compared to growth in past years, even during the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Trang.

She clarified, “The target of 6-7% export growth per year is for the whole period from 2021 to 2030. The specific target for export growth until 2025 is 8-9% a year and 5-6% per year from 2026 to 2030.”

Trang said, “Recent growth puts Vietnam among the countries with large-scale export and import.”

But in the future, import and export will face uncertainty caused by trade conflicts, geopolitical tensions, the increase of non-tariff trade barriers in many large markets, unpredictable developments in global commodity prices, as well as inflation and financial and monetary risks.

That means, Trang explained, “the growth target of 6-7% per year for the whole period is fairly challenging, not to mention that the strategy’s aim is to develop import and export sustainably toward quality growth.”

The strategy defines the roles that sectors and localities must play to promote their comparative advantages, effectively exploit opportunities, and meet challenges in fulfilling international economic integration commitments.

The strategy doesn’t set targets on a specific scale, but defines the goal of sustainable import and export development as the driving force for rapid and sustainable economic growth.

In addition, it adds objectives for commodity and market structure to specify sustainable development in line with the balance of trade within each market area.