Vietnam witnessed declines in exports and imports in the first four months of this year, and exploring new markets is now considered one of the solutions to foreign trade bottlenecks.

Difficulties facing the world economy continued affecting the country’s foreign trade in April, as trade value totalled US$53.57bil (RM242bil), falling 7.7% month-on-month (m-o-m) and 18.8% year-on-year (y-o-y).

It stood at US$210.79bil (RM954bil) in the first four months, down 13.6% from a year earlier (compared to an increase of 16.6% recorded in the same period last year), according to the Industry and Trade Ministry (MoIT).

The MoIT blamed it on several factors including high inflation in many countries and nosediving purchasing power, especially in terms of non-essential goods.

Such sectors as textile-garment, leather-footwear, wood and fisheries, of which their main markets are the United States and the European Union, experienced the sharpest drop in overseas shipments.

Besides, input factors like raw materials, personnel and transportation saw surging costs while export prices remained almost unchanged, undermining the competitiveness of products.

Meanwhile, imports were estimated at US$26.03bil (RM118bil) in April and US$102.22bil (RM463bil) in the first four months, respectively, dropping 8.1% m-o-m and 15.4% y-o-y (compared to the growth of 16.1% in the same period last year).

Materials serving domestic production accounted for up to US$88bil (RM398bil), or 86% of the four-month import turnover.

The import value of this group of commodities fell 18% from a year earlier due to the shortage of orders, the MoIT said.

To address the difficulties, it will connect domestic enterprises and business associations with Vietnam’s trade offices abroad to address their concerns.

The ministry will also reform and step up trade promotion in new markets such as India, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe, as well as those countries that are less affected by high inflation and holding positive growth prospects like the ones in Asean.

The markets with an expanding middle class, including the Emerging-7 countries (China, India, Turkiye, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Brazil) and halal markets like the Middle East, Malaysia and Brunei will also be tapped into, it added.

Diversifying markets is also a path chosen by many enterprises.

The Cong Thuong newspaper cited Than Duc Viet, general-director of the Garment 10 Corp, as saying that aside from traditional markets, his firm will also enter new ones such as Africa, the Middle East and China.

In addition, the company will boost restructuring, digital transformation and the use of renewable energy and green materials.

It will also offer more suitable products with competitive prices to the domestic market, he said.

Source: The Star