Vietnam's Trade Sector: A 40-Year Transformation from Low-Value to High-Value Exports

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Government News Author Kim Loan | Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in 1986, Viet Nam’s total import and export turnover stood at only nearly US$3 billion, including approximately US$789 million in exports and US$2.16 billion in imports. Forty years later, the picture has fundamentally changed. In 2025, total merchandise trade reached approximately US$930.1 billion, up 18.2 percent year on year, with exports exceeding US$430 billion. Viet Nam has risen into the group of the world’s 15 largest trading economies. These figures reflect more than an increase in scale. More importantly, they demonstrate a profound transformation: from a relatively closed economy to a highly open one; from exports dominated by products with low processing content to manufactured and processed industrial goods; from a limited number of traditional markets to an extensive network of trading partners; and from foreign trade being conducted primarily by a small number of enterprises to increasingly broad participation by businesses from all economic sectors. Source: National Statistics Office One of the most fundamental changes brought about by Doi Moi to import and export activities was the transition from a centrally planned, subsidized economy to a market economy under State management. In the early years of Doi Moi, the gradual relaxation of restrictions on import and export activities enabled more localities, economic organizations and enterprises from different economic sectors to directly engage in foreign trade. Before 1986, only around 30 firms were authorized to conduct import and export business. By 2005, the number of traders directly engaged in import and export had risen to more than 35,700 enterprises. This was not merely an increase in the number of businesses, more importantly, it represented a shift in management thinking—from the State directly organizing foreign trade activities to the State creating a legal, policy and business environment in which economic entities could proactively participate and compete. This process significantly unlocked the economy’s resources. Import and export, once an activity reserved for a limited number of designated entities, became a broad business arena in which enterprises could proactively seek markets, select partners, organize production and participate in cross-border supply chains. At the same time, resources for import and export have been mobilized in increasingly diverse forms, ranging from capital, technology and raw materials to management capabilities and international market networks. This has provided an important foundation for Viet Nam’s foreign trade to enter a period of rapid expansion in terms of scale, products and markets. Export scale is one of the clearest indicators of Viet Nam’s economic transformation. From US$789 million in 1986, export turnover rose to US$32.4 billion in 2005, US$48.6 billion in 2007, more than US$405 billion in 2024 and approximately US$430 billion in 2025. Compared with the starting point in 1986, Viet Nam’s merchandise exports have increased by hundreds of times. Notably, export growth has become increasingly associated with industrialization and modernization. In the early years of Doi Moi, exports were dominated by agricultural products, minerals and goods with limited processing content. Today, processing and manufacturing industries have become the backbone of Viet Nam’s exports. In the first six months of 2026, exports of processed and manufactured industrial products were estimated at approximately US$239.8 billion, accounting for 90 percent of total export turnover. Computers, electronic products and components; telephones and parts; machinery and equipment; textiles and garments; footwear and other product groups have become Viet Nam’s major exports. This shift shows that exports are no longer simply about bringing domestically produced goods to international markets. They are increasingly becoming an integral part of organizing production on a global scale. On the import side, the commodity structure also clearly reflects the role of imports in domestic production. In the first six months of 2026, production inputs accounted for approximately 94.1 percent of total import turnover, with machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts accounting for 56 percent, and raw materials, fuels and other production inputs accounting for 38.1 percent. This shows that imports should be assessed not only in terms of their scale, but, more importantly, in terms of their purpose and contribution to domestic production capacity. Another fundamental transformation over the past 40 years of Doi Moi has been the unprecedented expansion of Viet Nam’s market space. Before Doi Moi, Viet Nam’s export markets were mainly concentrated in socialist countries. From the early 1990s, Viet Nam gradually normalized and expanded economic relations with major economies. Viet Nam’s accession to ASEAN in 1995, APEC in 1998 and the WTO in 2007 marked important milestones in the country’s international economic integration process. To date, Viet Nam has participated in 17 free trade agreements (FTAs) involving more than 60 countries and territories, while Vietnamese goods have reached more than 230 countries and territories. Next-generation, high-standard FTAs such as the CPTPP, EVFTA, UKVFTA and RCEP continue to expand market opportunities and create conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to participate more deeply in regional and global supply chains. From the perspective of specialized State management, the Import-Export Department recognizes that the effectiveness of integration can no longer be measured simply by the number of markets or FTAs signed. It must also be reflected in the ability to translate tariff commitments into actual export turnover. These requirements not only open up new growth opportunities for import and export activities but also encourage Vietnamese enterprises to improve product quality, innovate technologies and better meet international market standards. Forty years of Doi Moi have also witnessed the increasingly clear formation of production chains oriented toward international markets. Electronics, computers, telephones, machinery and equipment, textiles and garments, footwear and leather products, wooden products, seafood and many other industries have built substantial export capacity. While trade deficits in the early years of Doi Moi reflected an economy in the process of accumulating resources and expanding production and investment, the maintenance of trade surpluses for the past decade demonstrates a significant improvement in Viet Nam’s export capacity, both in terms of scale and commodity structure, as well as its ability to participate in global production and supply chains. From 2012, the trade balance began moving toward equilibrium, with Viet Nam recordi