Publication: Vietnam: Connecting Value Chains for Trade Competitiveness
Date
2019-12
ISSN
Published
2019-12
Author(s)
Abstract
Vietnam's export-led growth
strategy and global integration are among the key factors
behind thecountry's remarkable achievements in growth
and poverty reduction over the last two and a halfdecades.
During this period, Vietnam's per capita income
increased nearly fourfold and povertywas reduced from around
53 percent in 1992 to 2 percent in 2016. Vietnam has become
one of themost open economies in the world with a
trade-to-GDP ratio of 187.52 percent in 2018.
Merchandiseexport growth averaged more than 15 percent per
annum in the last ten years; nearly five times theglobal
export growth. The country's export basket has improved
in its technological content and hasdiversified in both its
geographic destination and its product mix. There are
nevertheless challenges that continue to confront Vietnam’s
export performance. Many of Vietnam's manufacturing
exports have low domestic value addition, where Vietnam
performs primarily assembly functions. Trade costs remain
high compared to the average regional level. Domestic
firms' participation in key global value chains (GVCs)
is limited, and instead, export performance is largely
driven by the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector,
accounting for more than 70 percent of total exports.
Vietnam will likely be able to maintain its high export
performance even if these challenges are not addressed, but
there is scope for Vietnam to benefit even more from trade.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Pham, Duc Minh; Hollweg, Claire Honore; Mtonya, Brian; Winkler, Deborah Elisabeth; Nguyen, Thuy. 2019. Vietnam: Connecting Value Chains for Trade Competitiveness. © World Bank, Hanoi. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33219 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”