Vietnam racks up $1.3B trade surplus Japan green energy drive set to cost people $46B in 2030
VIETNAM’S trade balance posted positive $1.29 billion in the first two months of this year, the General Department of Customs has said.
The country’s trade turnover during January-February topped some $95.81 billion, a year-onyear surge of 25.4 per cent. Of the total, exports amounted to $48.55 billion, a yearly hike of 23.2 per cent, while imports were estimated at $47.26 billion, or 25.9 per cent higher than the same time last year.
Foreign-invested companies accounted for 76.4 per cent, or $37.07 billion, of Vietnam’s total export turnover. Meanwhile, the domestic sector shipped abroad $11.48 billion worth of products.
There were nine commodities joining the billion-USD export club, including telephones and parts ($9.3 billion, up 22.8 per cent year-on-year); electronics, computers and parts ($6.9 billion, up 27.3 per cent); equipment, machines and parts ($5.5 billion, up 72.6 per cent); footwear ($3.2 billion, up 15.4 per cent); and wood and wooden products ($2.4 billion, up 51 per cent). They made up 73 per cent of the country’s export turnover.
Vietnam also saw strong surge in shipments of several agricultural products, such as fruits and vegetables ($610 million, rising 14.6 per cent), rubber ($516 million, increasing 109.7 per cent), cashew nuts ($442 million, up 21.5 per cent) and cassava ($256 million, up 78.2 per cent).
The US was Vietnam’s biggest importer as it splashed out $14.2 billion on Vietnamese products, or 38.2 per cent higher than the amount it spent the same time last year. China came second with $8.5 billion, followed by the EU with $6.3 billion, ASEAN $4.2 billion, South Korea $3.4 billion and Japan $3.2 billion.
Meanwhile, the country spent big ($47.26 billion) on imports, with the foreign-invested sector purchasing $31.64 billion worth of products from abroad for production, up 31.4 per cent, while that of the domestic sector surged 16 per cent to $15.62 billion.
In the two-month period, China was the largest exporter of Vietnam, with revenue estimated at $17.3 billion, up 85.7 per cent year-on-year, followed by South Korea with $8.4 billion, ASEAN $5.6 billion, Japan $3.1 billion, the EU $2.3 billion and the US $2.1 billion.
In a bid to support local firms in promoting production and exports, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that it will work to capitalise on opportunities from the signed free trade agreements to seek measures for market development.
Additionally, it will keep a close watch on the global market to identify key export products, while paying due heed to penning measures for market development.
THE promotion of renewable energy will cost people in Japan 4.9 trillion yen ($45.8 billion) in fiscal 2030 through the feed-in tariff system, up from 3.1 trillion yen in fiscal 2019, according to government estimates, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
Under the feed-in tariff system, utilities are required to purchase electricity from solar and wind power at fixed prices, with part of the costs covered by a surcharge on households’ electricity bills.
As electricity produced from renewable energy sources is more expensive than electricity from sources such as thermal and nuclear power, the burden could rise further with the construction of offshore wind farms and the expansion of power grids.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s estimates were set to be presented at a meeting of experts on March 1.
They will be used as a reference in discussions to consider a new energy mix when the government revises the Strategic Energy Plan this summer.
The ministry estimated the total amount of renewable energy purchases based on three scenarios in which the percentage of renewable energy would increase from 18 per cent of the nation’s total power generation in fiscal 2019 to 22 per cent, 24 per cent or 25 per cent in fiscal 2030.
If all facilities, including planned large-scale solar power plants, are in operation, renewable energy will account for 25 per cent. In this scenario, the burden on the public is estimated to total 4.9 trillion yen, a 60 per cent increase from fiscal 2019. In the other two scenarios, the total burden is projected to be 3.9 trillion yen and 4.4 trillion yen.
ISRAEL considers Iran an “existential threat” but the two countries were once long-time allies under the shah.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Tehran of an attack on an Israeliowned ship in the Gulf of Oman, here is a recap of their volatile relations over the past half century.
Special relationship
Since its creation in 1948, Israel has close ties with Iran, which becomes the second Muslim country to recognise the Jewish state after Turkey.
They become allies under the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. At the time, Iran is home to the biggest Jewish community in the Middle East.
The new state imports 40 percent of its oil from Iran in exchange for weapons, technology and agricultural produce.
Israel’s Mossad also helps train the shah’s feared Savak secret police.
Islamic revolution
The 1979 revolution in Iran topples the shah, dramatically ending the friendship between the states. Israel does not recognise the new Islamic Republic.
The ayatollahs consider Israel illegal occupiers of Jerusalem and responsible for the “genocide” of Palestinians. Informal commercial links remain in place, however.
Islamic Jihad becomes the first Islamist Palestinian organisation to take up arms against Israel in 1980, with Iran as its main backer.
Nonetheless, Israel sends Tehran around 1,500 missiles to help it fight Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war that rages from 1980 to 1988.
Hezbollah created
Israel invades the Lebanese capital Beirut to counter Palestinian groups based there in 1982.
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps subsequently back the creation of militant group Hezbollah, which wages a campaign against Israeli forces from the Shiite strongholds of southern Lebanon.
Israel blames Hezbollah for attacks abroad, including in Argentina, where the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy kills 29 people and a 1994 attack on a Jewish community centre leaves 85 dead.
‘Wiped off the map’
Iran says it has successfully tested Shahab-3 missiles capable of reaching the Jewish state in 1998, alarming Israel, which fears its enemy is developing a nuclear capacity.
Iran’s new hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says in 2005 that Israel is doomed to be “wiped off the map” and that the Holocaust was a “myth”.
The sentiments echo those of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who refers to Israel as a “cancerous tumour” to be cut from the Middle East.
When Iran resumes uranium enrichment at Isfahan the same year, Israel calls on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons.
When the Iran nuclear deal is brokered by world powers in 2015, Netanyahu slams it as an “historic mistake”.