HÀ NỘI – Thái Nguyên has ranked third in terms of export value for the first five months of this year, according to the General Department of Customs.

For the second consecutive year, the northern mountainous province has surpassed the Đồng Nai and Bình Dương provinces, with US$7.43 billion in export value for the given period.

The first and second places were held by HCM City, with a total export value of $11.97 billion, and Bắc Ninh, with a total export value of $9.47 billion.

The department said, for many years until 2015, the provinces of Bình Dương and Đồng Nai had stood in third place.

In the first five months of this year, Thái Nguyên had the highest growth rate in export value nationwide, pegged at $1.09 billion against the same period last year, to reach a total of $7.43 billion. Meanwhile, the export value rose by $5 million in HCM City to reach $11.97 billion and by $867 million in Bắc Ninh to reach $9.47 billion. Bình Dương Province saw its export value to reduce by $223 million in the first five months of this year.

The department said Samsung Electronics Việt Nam Thái Nguyên Ltd Company (SEVT), Samsung’s first project in Thái Nguyên Province, had promoted the growth of the province’s export value since the start of its operations in 2014, boosting annual export value from millions to billions of US dollars.

In 2015, Thái Nguyên’s export value reached $15.97 billion, surpassing Đồng Nai Province in fourth place.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Promotion Agency said Thái Nguyên was expected to gain $27 billion in total export value in 2020 and an average growth rate in export value of 9 per cent per year.

To reach the target, the northern province will have to adopt a strategy of developing key export products, including electronic and high-tech products and dried tea products.

The province will focus on planning regions for the growth of tea plantations, lending support to enterprises that wish to invest in new technology and building geographic indicators for tea-growing areas to ensure a tea export volume of 10,000 tonnes by 2020.

In addition, the province will promote exports of textiles and garments by creating favourable conditions for enterprises to expand production and invest in new technology to improve the quality of their products, thus reducing production costs and expanding markets in the United States and the European Union.

Thái Nguyên’s Industry and Trade Department said the province would continue to serve the traditional markets, including the United States, the European Union, Taiwan, Japan and Russia, and would also seek partners to export to new markets in the Americas, especially Latin American countries; Africa; the Middle East; and West Asia. – VNS