Nearly 155 billion USD comes from telephone export in five years

Produce phones at SEV. Photo: T.Binh.

2-digit growth

Through the contribution history of telephones, it can be seen that in comparison with the other industries such as textiles, leather and footwear, fishery products ... the No. 1 export goods of our country is quite new.

This category is associated with the establishment and operation of Samsung Electronics Vietnam Co., Ltd., (SEV). In March 2008, SEV was granted an investment certificate with the total investment capital of 700 million USD, in Yen Phong Industrial Zone (Bac Ninh). In April 2009, the company put into operation a mobile phone assembly factory, and by August 2009, a new telephone pressing and coat painting factory went into production. By the end of 2009, the first shipments of "Made in Vietnam" telephones began to be exported.

Up to April 15, the total value of telephone exports reached 14.459 billion USD, up 50.6%, equivalent to 4.858 billion USD over the same period in 2017.

Less than 10 years contributing in Vietnam export goods, telephones have been firmly in the number one position for exports of the country. In 2017, this sector achieved export value of 45.272 billion USD, up 31.9% compared to 2016 and accounted for 21.15% of the total export turnover of the country.

Over the past five years (2013-2017), this group alone has reached a turnover of nearly 155 billion USD and the growth rate has always been double-digit, of which the highest increase is in 2013 with the increase of 67.1% compared with 2012.

Up to this point, in the history of Vietnam foreign trade, no group of export goods has achieved such outstanding achievements.

To see the strong growth of the telephones sector, look at the correlation with textiles sector - the second largest export industry and the largest and traditional sector of Vietnam export for many years (before the appearance of telephones).

In 2013, telephones ranked No. 1 in terms of export with the turnover value reaching 21.244 billion USD, higher by 3.3 billion USD than textile, which ranked No.2 (textiles reached 17.933 billion USD). But in 2017, this gap was more than 19 billion USD (textile exports in 2017 only reached 26.038 billion USD).

Over the past five years, the value of telephone products has increased by more than 24 billion USD, with the value in 2017 is more than twice that of 2013; while textiles only increased by more than 8 billion USD.

The export turnover growth of telephones in recent 5 years. Chart: T. Binh

Restructuring the export "map"

The strong growth of telephones makes Vietnamese goods more widely available in many countries and regions around the world. Up to now, "Made in Vietnam" telephones are available in most countries and territories that have trade relations with Vietnam.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market, for example, in the last few years, thanks to the telephone, the rich kingdom of the Middle East has become Vietnam's "billion dollar" export market and the telephone sector contributes to 80% of the turnover.

For domestic provinces and cities, the appearance of Samsung's cell phone and tablet manufacturing plant has re-established "the structure of key export and import localities". The most noticeable cases are Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen.

Before the appearance of large investors from Korea, these two localities were almost "unknown" on the map of Vietnam export. However, currently, Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen have been firmly in the lead and have surpassed a number of localities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Binh Duong and Dong Nai to occupy the second and third position in terms of export, only after HCMC.

Export restrictions on natural resources

The rise of the telephone group not only contributes significantly to the increase of total export turnover, but also brings many other positive signs.

In the previous years, Vietnam's key export categories were mainly based on resources, labor, land... such as crude oil, textiles, footwear and fishery products.

All mentioned major groups are considered "rough exports" because along with crude oil, textiles, footwear and fishery are mainly processed for foreign partners, the value of goods with "manual labor" in each product is quite high.

Therefore, the achievement of the telephone sector – the high-tech product line has brought accurate and true views for enterprises engaged in export production for investing in technology to increase more value added in each product.

The proportion of turnover of telephone items in total export in the whole country in 2017. Chart: T. Binh

Because in comparison with the size of the workforce, the number of factories and land, the telephone sector is unmatched in thousands of factories, hundreds of thousands, even millions of workers in textiles, footwear or fishery.

But the winning of the phone is the value of each product because a phone is worth dozens of shirts, many kilograms of fish and many shoes combined.

Therefore, a few factories with around 100,000 employees still help the telephone industry bring about a much larger export value of the garment sector with about 2 million workers and thousands of factories in the whole country.

The comparison can be inexact and incomplete. If the textiles, footwear and fishery have higher gray matter and hi-tech volume in each product, the correlation has not been inferior. Because in fact, the branded products in the above fields of the world-class corporation are even much more expensive than a telephone.

It can be said that the telephone export achievements partly has accelerated the transition in the application of high technologies of the export goods in our country