Abstract
Export performance plays an important role in the development of an economy. Many researches have proved that higher growth rate of GDP depends significantly to export activities. Export expansion has been a key focus of the trade reforming process in Vietnam over the last 15 years. Consequently, Vietnam export performance has changed significantly which directly and indirectly leads to better economic performances. However, this article shows that export value accounts for very high proportion of GDP, reflecting that Vietnam’s growth is depending heavily on export activities. This may cause potential vulnerability to Vietnam’s economy. The article, therefore, examines the key determinants to Vietnam’s export performance using an econometric model. The result shows that distances to importers, population and GDP volume of importing countries significantly affect the export performance of Vietnam while the effect of being a member of APEC and ASEAN is ambiguous.