Vietnam becomes first choice of many industrial sectors

Vietnam: First choice of many industrial sectors

For many industries, Vietnam has become their first choice in this manufacturing diaspora, said an article on Forbes recently, reported Vietnam News Agency

In his article, Warren Shoulberg noted that Vietnam has always had a heritage for handcrafted products. One of the industries in the forefront of the great Vietnam surge has been furniture.

In a video report on Vietnam by industry business publication Furniture Today, a good number of furniture producers talked about how they were rapidly developing their Vietnam facilities. Wanek Furniture, which is affiliated with the largest American supplier and retailer Ashley Home, said it has moved 50-70 percent of its import mattress production out of China and into Vietnam in just the recent past.

Man Wah, a large Chinese upholstery producer, said it had built a 2.5 million square feet factory in Vietnam in just nine months and is rapidly shifting production to reflect the changing trade situation. From zero, it now ships 1,100 containers a month from Vietnam, a rate it expects to increase to 2,000 a month by the end of the year and eventually to 4,000 per month as it builds out production.

But furniture isn’t the only industry were Vietnam is gaining market share. Sourcing Journal, an online industry newsletter, reports that footwear imports from Vietnam are up 11.3 percent year-to-date and the country’s share of the American market is now just over 26 percent./.

Vietnam imports over 7 million tons of petrol and oil

The Dinh Vu petrol and oil base depot. (Photo: VNA)

The amount of petrol and oil imported to Vietnam in September 2019 reached an estimated 750,000 tons, worth about USD435 million, according to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

With this, in the Jan-Sept period, the country spent about USD4.27 billion importing petrol and oil of all kinds, equivalent to more than 7 million tons, down 24.5% in amount and down 31.7% in value compared to the same period last year.

Earlier, Vietnam imported over 1.8 million tons of petrol and oil from Malaysia, valued at USD1.07 billion. This made the country also the biggest fuel provider of Vietnam in the first eight months of the year.

It was followed by the Republic of Korea with 1.54 million tons, worth USD1.01 billion, and Singapore with 1.4 million tons, worth USD801.29 million.

For domestic market, the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group produced and supplied 8.99 million tons of petrol and oils of all kinds, contributing to ensuring consumption and serving exports.

Vietnam among top 20 countries to visit in 2020

 International visitors to Hoi An ancient town (Photo: VNA)

The prestigious travel magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, has named Vietnam among the top 20 countries to visit in 2020.

Ranked 10^th on the list, Vietnam is growing as a very popular destination of foreigners. The country welcomed 12.9 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of 2019, a year-on-year rise of 10.8 percent.

The results were based on the choices of more than 600,000 readers across the globe submitting their responses and rating their recent travel experiences of the world’s countries, cities, islands, hotels, resorts, cruise lines, airlines and airports.

Many other Southeast Asian countries were included in the list with Indonesia taking the first position, followed by Thailand.

The Philippines and Cambodia came at the 8th and 19th respectively.

Apart from countries in the Southeast Asian region, the list named Portugal at the third place, Sri Lanka fourth, South Africa fifth, Peru sixth, Greece seventh and Italy ninth.