Hanoi (VNA) – Domestic businesses recorded a 19.9-percent rise in their exports over the first half of 2018, higher than theexport growth rate among FDI firms of 14.5 percent, according to the Ministryof Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Duong Duy Hung, Director of the MoIT’s PlanningDepartment, said at a meeting on July 9 that this upward trend has been visiblesince the last few months of 2017, reflecting positive signals for the localeconomy.

The positive export situation can be seen in theimproved growth rate of the domestically invested sector compared to theforeign invested one, he said, elaborating that businesses totally investedwith domestic capital shipped 33.07 billion USD worth of goods abroad over the lastsix months, up 19.9 percent year on year and higher than the 16.3 percentgrowth in the same period of 2017.

Meanwhile, FDI enterprises earned 80.86 billionUSD from exports, including crude oil shipments, up 14.5 percent but lower thanthe 20.7 percent growth in the corresponding period last year.

[20 items earn ꧒more than 1 billion USD in export revenue in H1]

At the meeting, the MoIT said there are manyfavourable conditions set for export throughout the rest of the year, addingthat agricultural and fishery exports often increase in the middle and peak atthe end of each year. Industrial products with big export revenues, liketextile-garment, footwear, and wood products, have entered their export seasonsince the second quarter.

Additionally, the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the EU-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement, expected to take effect in 2019, have been already been catalysts forforeign direct investment that could help Vietnam further boost its productioncapacity.

The ministry forecast this year’s exports at236.6 billion USD, up 10 percent against 2017.

In the first half of 2018, overseas shipments were estimatedat nearly 114 billion USD, rising by 16 percent from the corresponding periodlast year.

Twenty commodities have posted export revenue of over 1billion USD so far. They included phones and components (22.5 billion USD);computers, electronic products and components (13.45 billion USD);textile-garment (13.42 billion USD); machinery, equipment, tools and spareparts (7.8 billion USD); and footwear (7.79 billion USD).-VNA