Vietnam is estimated to spend over four billion U.S. dollars on importing various kinds of machines, equipment and tools in the first eight months of this year, a year- on-year rise of 18 percent.

Vietnam is forecast to import nearly 1.7 billion dollars worth of the items between August and December, making this year's machinery import turnovers record high, according to the Department of Trade and Service under the country's Ministry of Planning and Investment on Monday.

Vietnam, which is facilitating infrastructure construction, industrialization and modernization, spent nearly 5.3 billion dollars on importing machines, equipment and tools in 2005, up 0.1 percent against 2004.

The country is estimated to make total import turnovers of 28.7 billion dollars between January and August, up 17.4 percent.

Of the total turnovers, over four billion dollars come from machinery, nearly 4.2 billion dollars from petroleum products, roughly two billion dollars from cloth, nearly 1.9 billion dollars from steel, 1.3 billion dollars from materials and accessories for production of garment, textile and footwear, and over 1.1 billion dollars from plastic items, the department said.

Source: Xinhua