Vietnam-Malaysia trade up 21.15 pct in first half of 2018
Two-way trade value of Vietnam and Malaysia in the January-June period this year expanded 21.15 percent on a yearly basis to more than 5.84 billion USD, according to the Vietnamese trade office in Malaysia.
A round-table meeting to promote livestock products export-import between Vietnam and Malaysia held in Kualar Lumpur in April 2018 (Source: VNA)
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Two-way trade value of Vietnam andMalaysia in the January-June period this year expanded 21.15 percent on ayearly basis to more than 5.84 billion USD, according to statistics of the Vietnamese trade office in Malaysia.
Of the volume, Vietnam’s imports from Malaysia were worth nearly 3.84 billionUSD, up more than 42 percent compared to the same period last year, whileexports dropped 5.46 percent to 2 billion USD. As such, Vietnam ran a tradedeficit of 1.83 billion USD with Malaysia in the first half of this year.
It is noteworthy that Vietnam is importing more materials, fuels and machineryfor production from Malaysia, and buying less consumer goods.
Major imports include petrol and oil (1.23 billion USD), computers,electronics goods and parts (more than 620 million USD), machinery, equipmentand tools (380 million USD), and metals (172.5 million USD).
Five groups of products earned Vietnam more than 100 million USD inrevenue each, including phones and parts (308.5 million USD), computers,electronics goods and parts (300 million USD), steel products (228 million USD)and rice (138.2 million USD).
Some export lines saw strong rises in the period, such as rice (112.7percent), wood and wood products (109.41 percent), steel products (106.29percent), glass and glass products (56.39 percent), and coffee (37.67 percent).
However, earnings of computers, electronics goods and parts dropped56.33 percent.
Regarding investment, this year to June 20, Malaysia had 13 newinvestment projects in Vietnam worth a combined 59.83 million USD, while sixvalid projects added 12.09 million USD in total to their capital. Malaysianinvestors also spent 105.95 million USD to buy stakes in Vietnamese companies.In total, Malaysia ranked 11th among foreign investors in Vietnam inthe first half of the year with a total 177.88 million USD.
Malaysia’s accumulated investment in Vietnam as of June 20, 2018,reached 12.4 billion USD in 577 projects, ranking 8th among 128countries and territories investing in the country. -VNA
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A round-table meeting to promote livestock products export-import between Vietnam and Malaysia held in Kualar Lumpur in April 2018 (Source: VNA) 
