Economic & Financial community

Economic Sectors of Vietnam

There are some major sectors that contribute to economic growth of Vietnam and which basically keep the economy steady. Some of them are the energy sector, forestry, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, etc. Forestry, for example, accounted for major exports until Vietnam was threatened by deforestation in the 1990s, so it banned raw timber and log exports. The government also adopted a planting plan for forests in the same period in order to return to wood exports.

Contribution per Sector

As a country rich in water resources with numerous lakes and rivers, Vietnam also engages in fishery, whereby the most notable are shrimp exports which contributed to quadruple exports from 1990 to 2002. The country also ranks 2nd in rice exports, but it still lacks sophisticated tools to produce high-class rice.

When it comes to energy and mining, petroleum and coal are the economic drivers in this sector with oil reserves up to 500 million tons. Crude oil used to be the biggest export resource, but high-tech manufacture in recent years overtook the leading export role. Vietnam is still limited in number of refineries which would drive the oil exports to record-breaking heights. The mining industry contributes to over 9% of GDP including mines of bauxite, gold, zinc, tin, etc.

Industrial businesses and manufacture are also the main economic stakeholders accounting for around 40% of the GDP. Still, the sector does not employ a large percentage of workers, which means that it does not rank high by employment rate. The greatest productions sectors include food processing, chemicals, textile, tobacco products, etc. International Japanese and Korean companies contribute to the growth of this sector with opening plants in the country.

The truism sector has also seen a record number of visitors in 2016 reaching over 10 million tourists for the first time. Vietnam is a beautiful country with great tourism potential which also contributes significantly to the economy. The banking sector remains focused on the three largest Vietnamese banks which dominate the market, leaving smaller banks in the shadow.