Vietnam is best known as an agricultural country. The agriculture industry has always been the most prominent among all economic sectors.
In recent years, Vietnam has experienced a shift in the structure of economic sectors. The industry and construction sector and services sector have been developing strongly, making more distribution to the economy. While still serves as the country’s major economic sector, agriculture is slightly slowing down.
In 2009, the GDP distribution across economic sectors of Vietnam was: Agriculture-forestry-fishing accounted for 19.17 percent, industry and construction accounted for 37.39 percent, and services accounted for 43.44 percent. When compared to the statistics in 2019, the changes of GDP contribution across the economic sectors of Vietnam can be seen clearly. In 2019, the agriculture-forestry-fishing sector contribution to Vietnam’s GDP accounted for 13.96 percent, and this number for industry and construction was 34.49 percent. The services sector still contributed the largest percentage at 41.64 percent.
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world economy went through 2020 with a lot of difficulties and challenges. Vietnam also experienced a negative impact throughout 2020. However, the economy still maintained growth with a GDP increase of 2.91 percent. While this rate was the lowest in the period from 2011 to 2020, it was still considered a success in the context of the pandemic.
The agriculture-forestry-fishery sector had a growth rate of 2.68 percent in 2020. Specifically, agriculture increased by 2.55 percent, forestry by 2.82 percent, and fishery by 3.08 percent.
Rice is the main product of Vietnam’s agriculture sector. Vietnam is among the leading rice-producing countries worldwide. In 2020/2021, Vietnam was the second-highest rice exporting country, with 6.4 million metric tons of rice exported. Rice export turnover reached more than 3 billion USD.
Contributing to the agriculture sector are other important products such as vegetables and fruit, coffee, rubber, cashew nuts, etc. In 2020, coffee export turnover reached 2.7 billion USD, and cashew nuts reached 2.63 billion USD.
Wood and wood products export turnover reached 12.323 billion USD, up 15.7 percent compared to 2019. Seafood export turnover was 8.4 billion USD, down 1.8 percent compared to 2019.
The industry and construction sector had a growth rate of 3.98 percent in 2020. The manufacturing industryremained the most important factor in driving the growth of the economy. Some manufacturing subindustries that witnessed impressive growth in 2020 were: drug production, pharmaceutical chemistry, and pharmaceuticals; metal production; petroleum production; electric products, computers, and optical products production, etc.
Mining is also a major industry in the industry and construction sector. Vietnam has great resources for mining, notably oil and gas, coal, apatite, limestone, etc. While mining is a big industry, in 2020, the industry percentage decreased by 5.62 percent due to a decrease of 12.6 percent and 11.5 percent in petroleum and natural gas mining respectively.
The construction industry is becoming a major industry in Vietnam. Its contribution rate to Vietnam's GDP increased from 5.94 percent to 6.19 percent in 2020.
Retail sales of consumer goods and services decreased in the first half of 2020, then made a remarkable recovery in the latter half with a 6.2 percent increase, boosting the 2020 domestic trade to 2.6 percent. The growth rate of wholesale and retails; finance, banking, and insurance increased. Meanwhile, transportation; accommodation, and catering services sector all decreased in growth rate.
The tourism industry is very prosperous in Vietnam. With the scenery and cultural advantage, Vietnam has always been an attractive destination for tourists. The development of the tourism industry has, in turn, promote the growth of the hotel and restaurant industry.
The COVID-19 outbreak has costed the Vietnam tourism industry greatly. The pandemic forced a close down on the country, turned down international tourism. While domestic tourism was still allowed, the outburst of COVID-19 still limited traveling throughout Vietnam. Companies and firms operating in tourism suffered great lost and some shut down; restaurants and hotels also had to stop their operation.
Due to the impact of the pandemic, the revenue of the tourism industry in 2020 was down 59.7 percent compared to 2019. Revenue of accommodation and catering services also decreased, down by 13 percent compared to 2019.
Compiled by VietnamCredit
