Vietnam 's southern hub generated over 15 billion USD in exports during the first seven months of this year, a surge of 21.7 percent against the same period last year, according to municipal Statistics Office figures.

The rise was fuelled by earnings gathered from garments and textiles, which raked in 1.22 billion USD, an increase of 18.3 percent; footwear which fetched 323 million USD, an increase of 17.7 percent; seafood which brought in 226 million USD, an increase of 12.4 percent and milk which collected 68.7 million USD, an increase of 37.4 percent.

Rice exports, making up 11 percent of the city's total export value, saw a 5.2 percent decline in turnover, reaching only 800 million USD as export prices dropped by 6.7 percent compared to last year.

During the period, exports of the State-owned sector rose by 22.5 percent, while the foreign-invested sector was up 19.4 percent.

The city's total export value is expected to reach about 23.5 billion USD by the year-end, up 12.1 percent against the previous year. Besides its traditional markets, the city plans to continue exploring new export outlets during the remaining months of this year./.