The wood and forestry export turnover for 2019 needs to surpass USD11 billion, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed at the forestry and wood industry forum held on Friday in Hanoi.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the forestry and wood industry forum in Hanoi on February 22
The event which was held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, attracted participation of over 600 delegates from the relevant ministries and departments, and representative from more than 300 businesses who discussed wood processing and exports in 2018 and targets for 2019.
A report released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that Vietnam earned USD9.38 billion from exporting wood and forestry products last year, making up over 23% of the agricultural sector’s export turnover and recording a trade surplus of USD7 billion.
"Vietnam has exported wood and forestry products to over 120 countries and territories, becoming the fifth largest exporter of wood and forestry products in the world, second in Asia, and first in Southeast Asia, the ministry said.
Speaking at the forum, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the local wood industry still had big potentials and could achieve more than that.
"Vietnamese wood products now only account for 6% of the global market share," he said. "We need to build a proper development strategy to turn Vietnam into a wood processing export centre by 2030."
Phuc asked the ministry and relevant departments to fully identify the potentials and advantages of the industry for better development.
He also urged wood processing enterprises to upgrade and apply high-tech in production and design to make better products that meet the increasing demands of the market, while paying attention to business branding development.
"We have 4,500 enterprises and many traditional wood processing village, but none of them have proper production scale to compete with international competitors," he said.
The government leader noted that the target of USD11 billion in wood export value for 2019 was too low.
"The ministry should try to do more to drive the industry further and have higher achievements this year," he stressed.
