The southern province of Dong Nai ran a trade surplus of 270 million USD in January-March, according to the provincial Department of Industry and Trade.

The province pocketed 3.23 billion USD from exports and spent 2.96 billion USD for imports, up 12.2 percent and 6.4 percent against the same period last year, respectively.

Major export lines were footwear, garments, fibers, wooden furniture, machines and spare parts, with garments raking in 545 million USD, a rising of 13 percent over the same period last year.

Director of the Department Le Van Danh said the province’s big importers were the US, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Germany and Indonesia.

The locality imported mostly garment and footwear materials and equipment for production.

In 2014, footwear became the province’s leading export sector as it gained 2.23 billion USD, increasing 19 percent from 2013’s figure. It aims for 2.5 billion USD in export this year.

Local exports are expected to grow further in the next quarters on the back of the signing of eight trade agreements and lower tariffs on export commodities, Danh said.

He was confident that the province’s export earnings will surge, driven by the official formation of the ASEAN Economic Community and the completion of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiation by the end of this year.-VNA