The US has become the largest export market of southern Dong Nai province, said Director of the provincial Department of Investment and Planning Bo Ngoc Thu.

The locality shipped 364 million USD worth of commodities to the US in June alone, up 2.8 percent from the previous month and roughly 15.9 percent year on year. This fairly contributed to the export turnover of almost 2 billion USD during the first half of this year, a year on year surge of 17.6 percent.

Key foreign currency earners include footwear, textile and garment, and timber. Footwear exports rose 21 percent year on year to 567 million USD, accounting for 29 percent of total exports to the US while textile and garment brought home 353 million USD, up 12 percent and representing 18.6 percent of the export turnover.

Iron and steel, machinery, bags, suitcases, hats and seafood are among other export products, responsible for around 2-5 percent of the total.

Dong Nai has established connection with several US groups in retail and marketing industries, such as Target and Made in USA Works, to not only gain more access for its goods to the US market but also cut costs from middlemen.

Additionally, Dong Nai Business Association and Made in USA Works have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for their cooperation.

Chris Neeley from Made in USA Works said it requires local enterprises to have fairly large capital to produce high-quality goods at reasonable cost and with higher productivity, in order to make inroad into the US market.

The US currently has 23 FDI projects in the province with a combined investment of 134 million USD.-VNA