Dong Nai (VNA) – The southern province of Dong N𓄧ai expo✃rted 8.7 billion USD worth of commodities in the first seven months of 2016, a year-on-year increase of 4.35 percent.

According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade Duong Minh Dung, the slow increase was attributable to world falling prices of a number of products and less orders for wood products from Japan and European markets. The implementation of a number of free trade agreements lowered tariffs on several products, therefore reducing their export value, Dung added. According to the provincial People’s Committee, while the export turnover of the State-owned enterprises climbed12.7 percent, those of the foreign direct investment (FDI) and private sectors increased 4.71 percent and 1.63 percent, respectively. Some exports that enjoyed higher year-on-year growth included coffee (24.7 percent), footwear (20.8 percent), computers and electronic spare parts (10.18 percent), and means of transport and spare parts (7.8 percent). Meanwhile, the province’s staples such as garment, fibre, wood and steel products saw a low export growth. Dong Nai’s export value is expected to grow faster in the rest of the year when businesses step up production to fill signed orders, helping the province fulfill its yearly export growth target of 11-12 percent. Last year, the US was the leading market for provincial exporters, with total goods value shipped to the market reaching over 4 billion USD, while the import turnover from the country was 1 billion USD. It was followed by Japan, with nearly 1.3 billion USD in export turnover, and 700 million USD in import value. The province’s export and import turnovers to six ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, hit 1.5 billion USD and 600 million USD, respectively, with main commodities being textiles, footwear, computers, electronics, wood and wooden products.-VNA