(VOVworld) – Vietnam earned nearly 71 billion USD from export in the first half of this year, up 15% against the same period. The figures prove exports remain a highlight in Vietnam’s economy. But Vietnam still has to deal with many difficulties ahead to reach a sustainable growth target.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has had 13 products earning a turnover of over US1 billion USD each. The figure is expected to be 22 by the end of the year, one item higher than last year.  Two commodities - telephones and garments and textiles - surpassed the benchmark of 20 billion USD. Thai Nguyen province has become a new member of the 1 billion USD earners' club which is likely to have a total of 20 provinces and cities this year.

In the first half of the year, agricultural exports reached nearly 15 billion USD, up nearly 13% from last year. But since May, as a consequence of tensions in the East Sea, farm produce has showed signs of faltering, particularly in exports to the Chinese market. Therefore it is urgent for the sector to expand into new markets to reduce dependence on any particular market. Pham Quoc Thai, a representative of the Vietnam National Vegetable, Fruit, and Agricultural Product Corporation (Vegetexco), said:

“In the near future, exports are still forecast to face difficulties. We plan to diversify export markets and turn out more high value products like pineapples and frozen lychee products to export to the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the US.”

Another hardship of Vietnam’s exports is to increase product values while reducing dependence on material imports from one market to avoid market fluctuations. Garments and textiles, a spearhead export industry, earned more than 10 billion USD in revenue in the first six months of 2014. But the outcome poses a risk because most of Vietnamese raw materials are bought from China accounting for almost 40%. Tran Van Khang, General Director of Dong Binh Garment and Textile Company in Bac Ninh province, said:

“Our company specializes on processing but recently we have migrated to a Free on Board model aimed at utilising more domestic materials and purchasing cloth from Thailand and Singapore instead of China.”

Vietnamese businesses are focusing on investment in constructing material zones to help export items be sold in various markets with higher values. AS a result, it’s a positive sign when recently the garment and textile sector has attracted many projects in the textile dyeing or completed a master-planning for support industries.

In the context of the East Sea tensions, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang affirmed that the government is speeding up the restructuring of goods and export markets and devising timely policies to support businesses. He noted that “the government plans to expand new export and import markets to avoid dependence on one partner and strengthen the development of material zones to produce raw materials for manufacturing within the country. Besides the government is committed to offering favourable policies for agricultural production, and increasing added value and export capability toward a stable and sustainable growth.”

Minister Hoang noted that Vietnam is speeding up free trade agreements (FTAs) and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations with the European Union (EU).

Participating in these trade agreements will open up overseas markets, and provide a tremendous boost for advantageous goods such as garment and textile, footwear, and farm produce to penetrate potential markets to ensure sustainable exports.