Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam earned nearly 336.25 billion USD from exports in 2021, up 19 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reported on January 9.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said despite a slew of difficulties, the country’s export-import revenue still hit a new record of nearly 670 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 23 percent.

Vietnam has maintained a trade surplus for the sixth consecutive year, with a value of over 4 billion USD, mainly with developed, demanding markets like the US (with a trade surplus of about 80.1 billion USD) and Europe (close to 23.2 billion USD).

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh said the growth in exports has surpassed the target of 4-5 percent as set by the National Assembly and the Government.

Last year, shipments of raw materials decreased, while the export volume of processed and industrial products increased, with  processed products accounting for 86.24 percent in the export structure.   

Good growth was seen in exports to markets engaging in FTAs with Vietnam like China (15 percent), the US (24.2 percent), the EU (14 percent), ASEAN (25.8 percent), the Republic of Korea (RoK) (15.8 percent), India (21 percent), New Zealand (42.5 percent) and Australia (3.1 percent).

Apart from traditional markets, Vietnam’s export to new markets, particularly signatories of free trade agreement (FTAs), has also seen improvements, Khanh said, 

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) have proven effective as Vietnam’s export to the markets that are members of the pact expanded significantly./.