Plastics is a growth industry in Vietnam. The annual growth rate of the plastic industry has been around 30 percent in recent years. The industry has become one of Vietnam’s major export earners. After coal and rice, plastics was the third fastest export growing sector in Vietnam in 2005 despite the recent climb in oil prices and growing demand for inputs that caused the cost of plastic resins to increase.

Vietnam’s plastic industry produces most of what the domestic market consumes. Production, however, is currently oriented toward domestic items and packaging. Demand for plastics is rising around the world, and Vietnam’s internal market is beginning to demand more hi-tech plastics products, particularly manufacturing machinery and raw materials. Investment opportunities exist in the plastics machinery production, plastics resin production and waste plastics reprocessing sub-sectors.