Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Jan. 1 (VNA) -- Despite Viet Nam's poor export performance in 2001, commercial experts are still optimistic about the country's export prospect for 2002 when they forecast a year-on-year increase of 10 percent to earn between USD 17.3-17.6 billion next year.

They said many export items of Viet Nam have gained a firm foothold in the world market as its export value registered a rise of around 8 percent this year.

Next year, Viet Nam will rely chiefly on seven strategic export items such as seafood, rice, textile and garments, fruits and vegetables, coffee, handicrafts and footwear, according to experts.

In 2002, Viet Nam is forecast to export about USD 2.1 billion worth of aquatic products, four million tonnes of rice and 850,000 tonnes of coffee.

Viet Nam will also earn USD 2.5 billion from textile and garments export, USD 360 million from fruits and vegetables, USD 270 million from art handicrafts and USD 1.7 billion from footwear, the experts predicted.

Next year, Viet Nam's exports will benefit from the Viet Nam-U.S. trade agreement which came into force in early December 2001, slasking U.S. tariff rates on Viet Nam's exports to around four percent from an average of 40 percent.

However, the experts warned, the country will face great challenges as a result of the September 11 terror attack and China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

They added that major measures should be taken by Viet Nam to achieve the ambitious targets, including policies and programmes to be carried out to remove obstacles hindering export expansion, and efforts to increase market shares in traditional markets as well as to seek new product outlets in potential markets such as China, Russia and African countries.--VNA