We, the Industry and Trade people, are continuing to write the story of peace with our hearts, hands, and minds so that the country can forever move forward with the economic strength of peacetime in the epic of 50 years of peace, unity, integration, and development.

Memories of Fire and Steel

April 30, 1975 – the country was united. The gunfire had just stopped in the city when trucks carrying coal, oil, fabric, steel, and food started rumbling into the South. The workers did not take off their uniforms, they replaced their guns with truck steering wheels, hammers, calipers, receipt printers, generators... Quiet, persistent, and determined like the people themselves.

During the war against the US, the Industry and Trade sector not only transported goods and gasoline, but also organized production right in the forest, under bombs and bullets, at logistics stations. Field iron furnaces and commercial stores sprung up from underground tunnels. Soldiers returning from the front continued to volunteer for the 318th Army Corps to develop oil and gas, or became market managers, workers in textile, metallurgical, and chemical factories... They were warriors, but also builders.

The Industrialists and Commercialists are continuing to write the story of peace with their hearts, hands, and minds so that the country can move forward forever. Illustrative photo

There are thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers who did not return with the glory of weapons, but instead put on the uniforms of workers, engineers, and market officers, becoming the enduring notes in the Spring symphony of 50 years of the country's rise. The 318th Army Corps transformed into the oil and gas army, persistently exploiting black gold for the Fatherland.

5 years, a great challenge

The world over the past 5 years has been a series of earthquakes: COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, inflation, recession, energy crisis, logistics difficulties, supply chain disruptions and even trade wars. While many major economies have broken supply chains and millions of businesses have gone bankrupt, Vietnam's exports have continued to grow, its processing industry has not broken down, there has been no widespread power shortage, and the domestic market has been maintained...

The Industry and Trade sector is the pillar of that achievement. Not by words of praise, but by numbers: Export turnover from 281.5 to 405.53 billion USD (up 44%); Import from 262.4 to 380.76 billion USD (up 45.1%); Trade surplus reached 24.77 billion USD - the highest in the past 50 years; E-commerce increased by more than 110% - reaching 25 billion USD; National brand value soared to 507 billion USD - up 59%; Processing and manufacturing industry grew by 9.6% (2024); Total electricity capacity reached 82,400 MW.

Import and export are the bright spots of the economy. Photo: Can Dung

Those numbers are not indifferent. They represent the sweat, tears, and sleepless nights of millions of people, from trade negotiators, logistics experts, electrical engineers, petrochemical lecturers to container truck drivers, assembly line workers, and chemical plant security guards during the pandemic...

Redrawing the map of the quiet people

During the peacetime offensive, there were no guns or bombs, but there were people who silently contributed to rebuilding infrastructure, restructuring the market, and protecting the commercial border.

That is the engineer clinging to the drilling rig at Ca Mau Cape or the eastern continental shelf. That is the female e-commerce marketing staff sitting in a small office in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City, opening Vietnamese products to the world. Those are the lecturers teaching industrial work and nuclear power at the University of Industry and the University of Electricity. Those are the negotiation and integration experts of the Ministry of Industry and Trade who are strongly arguing at the WTO and many other trade regimes to protect Vietnam's interests in anti-subsidy lawsuits.

They are trade promotion soldiers, trade officers in Türkiye, Malaysia, the US or France, silently paving the way for seafood, agricultural products, electronics... They are thousands of footsteps of market management officers in the middle of the cold and rainy night to check the warehouse of smuggled goods. They are the engineers operating the Ninh Thuan solar power center, Bac Lieu wind power, offshore wind power...

They are the musical notes. The symphony of 50 springs, 50 flower seasons cannot be without musical notes.

Continue the story of peace

Join me in continuing the story of peace.

Looking at the bright homeland in the dawn

Looking at the bright sunlight and the national flag fluttering

The lyrics of the new song by musician Nguyen Van Chung are spreading like a flame of hope. In every workshop, every negotiation session, every transcontinental logistics train, today’s workers in Industry and Trade are also continuing to write the story of peace. They maintain the market, protect Vietnamese brands, act as a bridge to the world, and bring Vietnamese goods to the farthest markets.

There is no sustainable development without peace. But there is no real peace without prosperity and justice. The Industry and Trade sector is part of that mission: Bringing Vietnam not only to integration, but also to affirm itself with values, responsibility and courage.

We, the Industrialists and Commercialists, are continuing to write the story of peace!