Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(VNA) Vietnam earned over 6.15 billion USD from exports of goods to the US in the first five months of the year, an increase of 22.5 percent over the same period last year.

In a freshly released report, the General Department of Vietnam Customs said that with this achievement, the US continued its role as Vietnam ’s largest market for exports, making up 17.7 percent of Vietnam ’s total export turnover.

The five-month export value also saw Vietnam surpass the Philippines and Indonesia on the list of ASEAN exporters to the US .

Vietnam has also caught up with Malaysia , which is now the leading ASEAN country in exports to the US , in the exports of several staples.

Vietnam shipped garment and textiles, woodworks, footwear, seafood, cashew nuts and machinery to the US .

Of these, garment and textiles continued to gain the highest value with over 2.55 billion USD in the first five months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 17.7 percent, making up 50 percent of the country’s garment and textiles exports turnover. Following was footwear with an export value of 714 million USD, making up over 30 percent of total footwear export turnover.

The US was the largest importer of Vietnamese handbags, wallets and suitcases, spending 180 million USD on the products in five months of the year, an increase of 44 percent.

In the same period, Vietnam spent 1.77 billion USD on importing goods from the US , an increase of 26 percent over the same period last year.

As a result, Vietnam had a trade surplus of 4.34 billion USD to the US , an increase of 21 percent.

The US Commerce Association forecast that Vietnam is capable of leading ASEAN in exports to the US in 2011./.