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| Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) |
In a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the upcoming international conference on RoK – Vietnam cooperation, Kawk Sung-il, Director of the KIEP’s security strategy centre, said Vietnamese companies should pay great attention to developing their own technologies in parallel with promoting international cooperation, thus making technology transfer through cooperation with foreign companies operating in the domestic market more effective.
The RoK – Vietnam bilateral relations have developed strongly over the past three decades and reaped fruitful achievements, especially in term sof economics, he said, adding that the two sides need to discuss more cooperation methods to develop sustainably the relations in the future.
According to Kwak, economic cooperation is a bright spot in the bilateral relationship with Vietnam now being the 3rd largest trading partner of the RoK.
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| Electronic components production and assembly line. (Photo: VNA) |
In terms of investment, the RoK becomes the largest foreign direct investor in Vietnam. In 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the RoK’s investment in Vietnam decreased, but many Korean companies still ranked Vietnam as the most promising country among the ASEAN member nations.
However, the official also mentioned trade imbalance between the two countries, saying that as the two-way trade increases, the imbalance also gradually worsens.
Increasing Vietnam's agricultural exports to the RoK can help resolve the trade imbalance, but this is only a short-term remedy, he said, adding that Vietnam needs to have solutions to attract more investment from the RoK, thus helping Vietnamese companies participate in the RoK’s production network.
If a strong supply chain between the two countries can be formed, the bilateral mutual relationship will be promoted more sustainably, he affirmed.
The official said that Vietnam should promote its production capacity and technology to join supply chains.
Cargo throughput via seaports sees slight rise in July
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| Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) |
Cargo throughput via seaports across the country hit 62.9 million tonnes in July this year, up 2% year-on-year, Vietnam News Agency quoted statistics of the Vietnam Maritime Administration.
Container throughput increased 1% to 2.2 million TEUs during the period.
Notably, the volume of imports and exports tends to increase, but domestic container goods has decreased slightly.
Economists said that the growth of goods throughput at seaports is still low and has not regained the recovery momentum to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic.
They attributed the situation to the lingering consequences of the pandemic, and the Russia – Ukraine conflict, which put pressure on the global economy.
Rising inflation amid the bleak growth prospect can have a significant impact on the global consumer demand, and goods transport, they said, noting that Vietnam, with an open economy, can hardly avoid these effects.
Trinh The Cuong, Director of the Da Nang Port Authority, said the over-20%-decrease in the volume throughput of domestic goods in the past three months shows that the goods circulation in the region have not shown signs of recovery after the pandemic.
The port and shipping industry is forecast to have a long-term rebound outlook thanks to export growth in the second half of 2022 and the whole 2023, according to the Retail Research and Investment Advisory Division at Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI).
Vietnam’s petroleum imports rise 150% over eight months
Vietnam had spent nearly US$6 billion importing 5.65 million tonnes of petroleum of all kinds as of August 15, up 150% in value year on year, VOV News quoted figures of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
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| Total petroleum imports rise 150% in value over eight months. (Illustrative image). |
Petroleum businesses imported 651,000 tonnes worth US$736 million in July alone, representing an increase of 5.4% in volume but a fall of 9.4% in value compared to corresponding figures recorded in June due to the cooling of world market prices.
More than 3.17 million tonnes of diesel were shipped to Vietnam, making up 60% of the total volume of petroleum products imported into the country as of August 15.
Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea remains Vietnam’s largest petroleum import market, with 2.17 million tonnes in the first seven months of this year, up 92%. It is followed by Malaysia and Singapore that purchased 815,000 tonnes and 753,000 tones, respectively.
The global oil market has fluctuated sharply since the beginning of the year, mostly due to the limitary conflict in Ukraine. In Vietnam, the Nghi Son oil refinery’s decision to cut production capacity in January due to technical problems resulted in a shortage of petroleum in the domestic market.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade immediately requested key petroleum trading businesses to increase their imports by an additional 2.4 million m3 in the second quarter, to make up for the shortfall in output from the plant. The ministry confirmed that Vietnam currently has a sufficient supply of petroleum for domestic use.
Domestic retail petrol and oil prices have experienced 13 increases and seven falls since the beginning of this year. After skyrocketing to more than VND33,000 per litre, the price of petrol RON-95 plummeted in early July and it has since declined five times to VND24,660 per litre at present.
The government is scheduled to announce new retail prices of petrol and oil on August 22 afternoon.
Vietnam forecast to reach highest GDP growth in Asia-Pacific in 2022
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| A corner of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA) |
Despite moderation in July exports this year, Moody’s Analytics - a unit of Moody’s Corporation, has forecast Vietnam’s GDP growth in 2022 to reach 8.5% – the highest among its peers in the Asia-Pacific region, reported Nhan Dan Online News.
Vietnam is the only Asia-Pacific (Apac) economy to experience a significant upward revision in GDP growth as forecast by Moody’s Analytics.
According to economists from the analysis firm, a very slow reopening of Vietnam’s economy earlier in the year has now turned into a rapid improvement in industrial production and export trade, supported by continued inward foreign direct investment.
While economists highlighted a deceleration of exports as reported in July’s data, they believe demand could stabilise from the US, as its labour market is “quite strong”, in their view.
They also warned that South and Southeast Asia face the greatest risk from a surprise in inflation, which could slow local demand for goods and services, including housing./.