Vietnam has become the biggest exporter to the United States in theSoutheast Asian region with a record trade surplus of almost 25 billionUSD in 2014, surpassing even Malaysia and Thailand.

The two-waytrade reached 36.3 billion USD, of which Vietnam exported 30.6 billionUSD worth of goods to the US in 2014 while its imports were only 5.7billion USD, the US Census Bureau data showed.

These figures represented increases of 24 percent in export and 13.6 percent in import compared with the previous year.

Ending2014, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 24.9 billion USD with the US,the highest-ever value since the two countries normalised relations.

Exportof garment and textile was the main contributor in the Vietnam'ssuccess with the export value of nearly 10 billion USD, accounting forone-third of the country's total export value. Vietnamese textile alsoraised its market share in the US to 9.26 percent.

This result isalso higher than the previous forecast of a trade surplus of 23.9billion USD by the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham).Last October, AmCham forecast Vietnam-US two-way trade revenue wouldlikely reach 34.9 billion USD in 2014, including 29.4 billion USD fromVietnam's exports to the US.

The United States' reportedstatistics are also larger than the figures released by the Vietnam'sGeneral Department of Customs. According to the customs department,Vietnam shipped nearly 28.7 billion USD worth of goods to the US andimported 6.3 billion USD from this country, registering a trade surplusof 22.4 billion USD.-VNA