The southern province of Binh Duong, a magnet for both Vietnamese and foreign investors, earned nearly 3.2 billion USD from its exports in the first quarter of 2014, up 12.7 percent from the same period last year.

According to the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, the foreign-invested economic sector contributed 2.6 billion USD to the total.

In March alone, export turnover is estimated to surpass 1 billion USD, representing a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.

The growth is attributable to the rising demand in the province’s traditional markets such as the US, the European Union, Japan and ASEAN countries.

In the first three months of this year, several of the locality’s key exports recorded significant growth, including garments that saw a year-on-year rise of 28 percent to reach 448 million USD, wood products (388 million USD) and footwear (289 million USD).

Since the beginning of this year, local businesses have expanded their production scale and effectively exploited their markets.

In addition, due to enterprises’ support policies, the number of employees returning to work after the New Year holiday reached 90-95 percent, contributing to stabilising production and maintaining growth.-VNA