Determinants of Bilateral Trade Flows Between Vietnam and Trading Partner Countries – Gravity Model Approach

This study uses the gravity model to investigate the bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and 52 countries from 2001 through 2011. The data are collected from International Trade Centre (ITC), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (WB). The results show that economic size, geographical distance, economic distance, technological innovation, trade openness, free trade agreement, population, exchange rate, and common border affect the bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and these 52 countries. More importantly, this study uses the speed-of-convergence method to find new potential trading partners for Vietnam, such as those in Africa and Southwest Asia.