Hanoi, Sept. 3 -- Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in 1986, Viet Nam's total import and export turnover stood at only nearly US$3 billion, including approximately US$789 million in exports and US$2.16 billion in imports. Forty years later, the picture has fundamentally changed. In 2025, total merchandise trade reached approximately US$930.1 billion, up 18.2 percent year on year, with exports exceeding US$430 billion. Viet Nam has risen into the group of the world's 15 largest trading economies.
These figures reflect more than an increase in scale. More importantly, they demonstrate a profound transformation: from a relatively closed economy to a highly open one; from...