US$ 280 billion of Vietnam’s import and export turnover comes from Asia

	Import and export turnover reached US $ 428.63 billion
	Vietnam will have a surplus for 4th year running
	Seeking for effective solutions for stable export to the US

The share of import-export turnover between Vietnam and the continents shows the "biggest pie" is from Asia. Chart: T. Binh

Accounting for 65.4 percent

According to preliminary statistics of the General Department of Customs, the country’s total import-export value in October reached US$46.61 billion, up 3.3 percent over the previous month.

In October, export value reached $24.23 billion, up 3.7 percent compared to the previous month; the import $22.37 billion, up 2.9 percent.

By the end of October, the country’s total import-export turnover was $428.63 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent. In which, the exports were $218.82 billion, up by 8 percent and import $209.81 billion, up by 7.7 percent. Trade surplus of goods of the whole country in the last ten months reached $9.01 billion.

The total import-export value of FDI enterprises in October reached $28.93 billion, a slight decrease of 1 percent compared to the previous month. Thereby, bringing the import-export value of the FDI sector in the first ten months to $271.13 billion, up 4.3 percent, equivalent to an increase of $11.2 billion over the same period in 2018.

Notably, the trade balance of FDI enterprises reached a surplus of $28.53 billion.

In terms of import and export markets, Asia is dominant

Exports and imports of Vietnam's goods to the Asia in ten months reached $280.35 billion, up 5.8 percent over the same period in 2018, accounting for 65.4 percent of the country's total turnover.

In which, export value was $111.93 billion, up by 2.8 percent and imports$168.42 billion, up by 7.8 percent.

In particular, imports from Asia accounted for 80.3 percent of the country’s total import turnover compared to the same period last year.

The imports from China, South Korea and Japan alone accounted for more than56 percent of total import turnover with the proportion of 29.6 percent; 18.8 percent and 7.7 percent

Big trade deficit

The trade deficit with China is expanding

By the end of October, the country spent more than $62 billion to import goods from China, up nearly $9 billion over the same period in 2018. It is worth notingthat while imports increased sharply, Vietnam's export turnover to this neighboring country tended to decrease.

Specifically, by the end of October, Vietnam's export turnover was only nearly $33 billion, down about $500 million over the same period in 2018.

This pushed Vietnam's trade deficit from China to a record of about $29 billion within the first 10 months, an increase of about $9 billion compared to one year ago.

The trade surplus in the first 10months of 2019 was greater than the result of the whole year 2018 (trade deficit in 2018 was more than $24 billion).

The import-export data of the Customs sector in recent years shows the deficit of $29 billion has been a record number in recent years and only lower than the result of 2015 (in the first month of 2015, it was in excess of$36 billion and $32 billion for the whole year).

Apart from China, Vietnam also suffered a big deficit of $22.73 billion with South Korea.

Target of 500 billion USD in import-export turnover obtainable

Of the three major Asian partners mentioned above, Vietnam only achieved a trade surplus of over $700 million with the Japanese market.