The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the biggest importer of Vietnamese phones and phone accessories, with growth of over 100 percent year-on-year since 2010.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese cellphones to the UAE reached export turnover of 71 million USD in 2010, then jumped to 364 million USD in 2011, 1.5 billion USD in 2012 and more than 3 billion USD last year.

In a report released on March 28, the General Department of Vietnam Customs' online news site, www.baohaiquan.vn, quoted a department figure as saying that the UAE had paid nearly 520 million USD to import Vietnamese phones in the first two months of this year.

The figure represented over 81 percent of total UAE import turnover from Vietnam .

Also, according to the report, the export value to the UAE accounted for more than 15 percent of total Vietnamese phone export turnover in the first two months of the year, when Vietnam earned nearly 3.4 billion USD from phone exports.

The other major importers of Vietnamese phones in the first two months were the US with a turnover of over 284 million USD, Germany 184 million USD, the UK over 182 million USD, Hong Kong nearly 140 million USD, Russia 140 million USD, and Italy 120 million USD.

Last year, the UAE was the biggest importer of Vietnamese phones. Import value was 3.2 billion USD, accounting for 16 percent of Vietnamese phone and accessory export turnover, and representing 83 percent of the UAE's total import value from Vietnam .

The other main products that the UAE imports from Vietnam are computers, rice, garments and textiles. These imports have grown quickly, with growth in recent years of more than 100 percent year-on-year for each product.-VNA