As one of the fastest growing economies in the developing world, Vietnam is a vibrant country undergoing improvement of its infrastructure to aid its future growth plans. Over the last twenty years, Vietnam has been undergoing a transformation from a centrally planned economy to a market economy and over that time, Vietnam has experienced significant growth. This is good news for the international freight transport sector and shipping companies involved in trade with Vietnam as their business will grow at the same time as the Vietnam economy. In 2009, export turnovers were over 56 billion US dollars, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.This reflected a decline of approximately 10% from the previous year.

Vietnam’s single largest export is crude oil, which accounted for 11% of earnings from exports in 2009. Vietnam’s other main exports part from crude oil are textiles, footwear and garments, rice, coffee, rubber and coal. Aquaculture is also an important source of export business as well as processed forest products. At present, the exports from Vietnam are dominated by agricultural products but this is all set to change as Vietnam increases its industrial base. Already, 5% of earnings are accounted for by electronic equipment. As the country continues to develop its industrial base, the freight services infrastructure will continue to develop to support it. The main markets for exports from Vietnam are the United States, accounting for nearly 20% of exports, followed by Japan, China, Australia and Singapore.

Economic relations between Vietnam and the United States are improving but impeded by Vietnam’s record in human rights. Nevertheless, there have been great strides forwards in economic relations over the last decade and this is reflected in the current level of freight transport. A landmark bilateral agreement in December 2001 significantly boosted the level of Vietnam’s exports to the United States. The most important imports to Vietnam are commodities, including petroleum products, steel, fertilizer, electronics, machinery and equipment. Most imports come from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.

Vietnam is currently keen to develop more trade with countries in the European Union and freight services companies are making this easier, as freight companies increase their own expertise in the Vietnam market. There are now many shipping companies that can help businesses in the European Union trade with Vietnam. The diverse nature of the above examples of imports and exports to and from Vietnam stresses how versatile the freight services companies operating in Vietnam need to be in order to service this market. A shipping company or freight company that is familiar with exporting from Vietnam will be expert at providing the correct transportation mode to ensure that the products arrive at their destination market in peak condition and within as short a time frame as possible. The freight forwarding market in Vietnam has developed considerably in recent years and the standard of freight services available is very high.

The first advantage of Vietnam in producing plastic is cheaper cost of raw material, land rent, labor cost. Big factories in Vietnam are usually located in provinces which far away from center. The reason for it is its absolute advantages in land cost and labor cost. Vietnam is usually known as an agricultural nation which specialized in working on farm with very low income. However, when industrial zone appeared, it created big advantages to recruit a huge number of workers from those farmers with very cheap salary. In average, the labor cost for 1 ton of plastic bags range from 250USD to 400USD up to different kinds of bags. Moreover, rent fee of land also is much cheaper compared with developed countries. That’s why a lot of big companies in plastic bag industry in developed countries can not compete with Vietnam companies. They have to close their factories and change to become wholesalers and importers.

The other advantage of Vietnam plastic bags is no anti dumping tax to EU countries. Anti dumping tax on plastic bags is created because the companies in EU,US cannot compete with cheap prices from Asia. The anti dumping tax ranges from 8 percent to 30 percent for almost Asian countries especially put on China; the tax rate depends on different factories. There is no anti dumping tax on Vietnamese companies therefore, it makes Vietnam become a very strong competitor compared with other Asian countries, especially China.

Regarding to the quality of plastic bag, Vietnam also imports materials (virgin resin) from Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc and machines from Taiwan, therefore, the quality is at the same level as other Asian countries. Even Vietnam’s bag quality is known more stable than China. Taking those advantages, Vietnam become more and more competitive in global market and attract a lot of customers from developed countries and try to expand their capacity. It will open very promising future for Vietnam plastic industry and big opportunities for worldwide customers to get high quality and cheap prices.