Hanoi has set a target of increasing export turnover by 5% from 2021, according to the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade. 

Last year, the city’s export turnover hit US$16 billion, rising only 0.9% compared to 2020 due to the negative impact of the pandemic and low overall demand across the world.

Workers are making Bat Trang pottery, one of Hanoi's key industrial products, at a facility in Bat Trang Ceramic Village in Gia Lam District. Photo: Gomsu

To achieve the goal set for 2022, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade will strengthen trade promotion activities under the Plan on international economic integration in the 2021-2025 period. 

Acting Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade Tran Thi Phuong Lan said this year the city’s industry and trade sector will focus on effectively carrying out the Plan and tapping into the possibilities brought about by the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). 

In addition, the capital will focus on fostering the logistics sector with a vision for 2025.

The Department will speed up the attraction of investment in all industries, as well as support distribution enterprises to develop trade networks and showrooms to introduce and sell products under the One Commune, One Product (OCOP) program in the city. 

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, though the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the interruption of production and business activities, disruption of the supply chain, and a sharp decline in consumption of goods, digital transformation has not been sped up and taken advantage nor has it able to keep pace with the 4.0 revolution.

To tackle these inadequacies, Hai suggested restructuring the capital's industry and trade sector in the direction of improving productivity, quality, added value, and competitiveness, effectively exploiting the FTAs ​​that Vietnam has signed as well as promoting the effective development of e-commerce.

At a meeting on January 7, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen requested the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade to align the sectoral plans with the general construction planning of the capital so as to effectively attract investment in industrial zone development.

In addition, the sector should effectively implement industrial promotion programs as well as continue to speed up administrative reform.

 Vietnam's trade - a bright spot

In 2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic challenges, Vietnam’s trade reached a record turnover of nearly $670 billion, an increase of nearly 23% compared to the previous year, becoming a bright spot and putting the Southeast Asian country among the world's top 20 nations with biggest trade economy.

“In which exports made a spectacular breakthrough, increasing by over 19% (exceeding by 15%  the yearly plan), attaining a trade surplus of over $4 billion and maintaining a positive trade balance for the sixth consecutive year,” Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized at a conference related to the 2022 plan of the national industry and trade held on January 9.

In 2021, e-commerce as a new growth engine made an important contribution to preventing disruptions in the supply chain of goods and promoting exports.

The country's export turnover is expected to increase 6-8% and the trade balance maintains a surplus in 2022.