# Trade Audit — Vietnam

> Vietnam's exports grew from $2.4 billion in 1990 to $475 billion in 2025 — a 198-fold increase, among the fastest of any economy on record. But the domestic value-added share of those exports fell from 76.9% in 1995 to 52.0% in 2020 (the last year the OECD series measures it) — by far the steepest decline in the value-added data we track. Vietnam built one of the world's most explosive export machines. The question is how much of it Vietnam actually owns.

Publisher: The Quant (https://thequant.market)  
Published: 2026-10-04  
Section: trade  
Language: en  
URL: https://thequant.market/articles/vietnam-s-exports-grew-168-in-35-years-its-domestic-value-ad  
Cite as: The Quant, "Trade Audit — Vietnam", 2026-10-04, https://thequant.market/articles/vietnam-s-exports-grew-168-in-35-years-its-domestic-value-ad

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## The Arc

In 1990, Vietnam exported $2.4 billion of goods — mostly crude oil, rice and seafood (garments became a leading item only from the mid-1990s). By 2025 it exported $475 billion. The 198× expansion is not a typo.

The composition transformed. Computers, electronics and components ($107.8 billion in 2025) and phones and components ($56.7 billion) together make up about 35% of the export basket ($164.5B of $475B) — up from 31% in 2024. Computers, not phones, are now the larger half, and electronics alone drove more than half of 2025's export growth (+48% year-on-year). The United States is the top destination, absorbing $153.2 billion in 2025 — about 32% of the total.

## The Value-Added Collapse

Vietnam's domestic value added share of exports — the portion of each export dollar that stays as wages, profits and locally sourced inputs — fell from 76.9% (1995) to 52.0% (2020, OECD TiVA). That is the steepest decline in the value-added data we track: the next-largest fall among the 20 economies covered is Japan's −7.9 percentage points, less than a third of Vietnam's −24.9. (Verified across those 20 economies; not checked against the full 76-economy TiVA set. TiVA's 2025 edition extends to 2022 but was not accessible for this piece.)

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