 |
| A shrimp processing factory in Vietnam (Photo: VNA) |
By optimising advantages created by free trade agreements (FTAs), Vietnamese enterprises have been working to turn challenges into opportunities.
The sector is predicted to make up 3% of the country's total overseas shipments this year.
Vietnam is currently the world’s third largest exporter of fishery products, after China and Norway. With the obtained results, its aquatic exports are expected to hold an over-7% share in the global market.
The newspaper said the to-be-obtained turnover is attributable to not good luck, but the combination of multiple factors, including authorities’ timely actions to sustain production chains, trade promotion effectiveness, and businesses’ capacity.
For example, despite a year-on-year revenue decline in the US market, overall shrimp exports have still grown thanks to market diversification and the capitalisation of advantages generated by FTAs.
Many economic experts held that the fishery sector has seen positive signs for the remaining months of 2022 but due to impacts of the global economic situation, it is still facing various difficulties such as inflation and economic downturn in import markets, along with a decrease in orders.
Vietnam maintains impressive growth despite global gloomy outlook
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Vietnamese gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to grow by 7% this year, and this growth can be considered a miracle in the context that one third of the world economies is predicted to experience contraction.
 |
| Vietnam maintains impressive growth despite global gloomy outlook (Source: VNA) |
Currently, Vietnamese GDP growth also leads the ASEAN five group that makes up Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, reported VOV.
Davide Furceri, economist for the IMF, emphasised that the country continues to be a bright spot in the region moving into the post-pandemic recovery period thanks to its flexible monetary policy, timely fiscal support, and rising demand in the international market in the first half of the year.
Era Dabla-Norris, mission chief of Vietnam and assistant director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, described the growth trend of the Vietnamese economy as positive amid facing escalating crises of energy, food, and inflation in the world.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal of the United States has published an article, noting that Vietnam is out of step with the rest of Asia in terms of growth, dollar reserves, and monetary policy.
The newswire’s experts stressed that Vietnam has maintained a series of impressive growth indicators amid global concerns including an economic recession, inflation, and rising prices, along with other major uncertainties.
Fitch Ratings, one of the three major international credit rating agencies, highlighted the country as a place boasting strong medium-term growth prospects, low government debt, and an favourable external debt profile.
The financial institution expressed its optimistic view that Vietnamese GDP growth would rise by 7.4% this year, largely thanks to the development of industry, construction, and services. It also noted that foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to be the driving force for strong Vietnamese growth In the medium and long term.
Meanwhile, credit rating agency Moody's anticipated that the Vietnamese economy would expand 8.5% this year. In September, Moody’s also upgraded the country’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Ba2 from Ba3, changing the outlook to stable from positive.
Vietnam makes up the only country in the Asia-Pacific region and is only one of four places in the world to have ratings upgraded by Moody’s since the beginning of the year. This shows that the local economy boasts many strengths and has a great resilience to external macroeconomic shocks which is indicative of improved policy effectiveness.
Vietnam-Cambodia trade maintains positive growth
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to Cambodia from November 8-9 and his attendance at the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related Summits from November 10-13 are expected to help boost bilateral trade cooperation which has reported positive growth over the recent past, reported VNA.
 |
| Vietnam-Cambodia trade expected to surpass 11 billion USD this year (Photo: VNA) |
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the 2016-2020 period, two-way trade recorded an annual average growth rate of 17%, from 2.92 billion USD in 2016 to 5.31 billion USD in 2020.
The turnover surged by 79.1% to 9.54 billion USD last year, and is expected to surpass 11 billion USD this year, as it reached 8.45 billion USD in the first nine months of this year.
Along with bilateral deals such as the border trade agreement and the bilateral trade promotion agreement, those in ASEAN are hoped to continue connecting the Vietnamese and Cambodian economies.
 |
| Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) |
These agreements are also expected to create more opportunities for investors of Vietnam, Cambodia and the third country to make the most of each nation's advantages to expand investment and business activities and develop regional value chains for export to ASEAN countries and other markets around the world.
Vietnam and Cambodia also have great potential to continue promoting cooperation in specific fields such as consumer goods production, energy, electricity, mining, processing, agriculture, forestry and fishery.
Statistics show that to date, Vietnam has 198 valid investment projects in Cambodia with a total registered capital of 2.92 billion USD.
At the talks on the sidelines of the 54th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Cambodia in September, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak agreed to promote cooperation in border trade through upgrading border gate pairs and opening new border markets.
To foster the bilateral trade, the Vietnamese ministry plans to chair a Vietnam - Cambodia Business Forum and send business delegations to a one province one product (OPOP) fair scheduled for December in Phnom Penh.
Pangasius exports skyrocket by 81% over 10 months
Vietnam’s tra fish (pangasius) exports surged by 81% to reach US$2.2 billion by mid-October, VOV cited the data of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
 |
| Pangasius exports skyrocket by 81% over 10 months |
This marks the strongest growth among Vietnamese aquatic export products this year, said VASEP, attributing the sharp rise to high inflation in major economies, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and China’s zero-COVID policy.
China and the United States are the two largest consumers of Vietnamese pangasius with market shares accounting for 30% and 23%, respectively.
Most notably, China spent US$647 million on importing Vietnamese pangasius over the past 10 months, representing a year-on-year rise of US$647 million.
Apart from these two large markets, local pangasius exports to markets of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and some Asian countries skyrocketed due to taking full advantage of tariff incentives and geographical factors.
By the end of September, Vietnam had more than 400 enterprises engaging in exporting pangasius, and they all recorded strong export growth thanks to high prices.
Currently, the average price of frozen pangasius fillets in the US market inched up 53% to US$4.26 per kilo against the same period last year.
The US Department of Commerce (DOC) recently issued the final determination of the 18th anti-dumping tax administration review (POR18). Accordingly, the DOC has maintained an anti-dumping tax rate that is applied to each company based on the POR17 announcement.
With these positive signs, the country’s pangasius exports are anticipated to soar by 58% to reach over US$2.5 billion this year.
At present, pangasius exports account for 27% of the seafood industry's export value./.