s:
total value : $7.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: crude oil, rice, marine products, coffee, rubber, tea,
garments, shoes
partners: Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, South Korea

Imports:
total value: $11.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: petroleum products, machinery and equipment, steel
products, fertilizer, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles
partners: Singapore, South Korea, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan

Debt - external: $7.3 billion Western countries; $4.5 billion CEMA
debts primarily to Russia; $9 billion to $18 billion nonconvertible
debt (former CEMA, Iraq, Iran)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA
note: $2.4 billion in credits and grants pledged by international
donors for 1997

Currency: 1 new dong (D) = 100 xu

Exchange rates: new dong (D) per US$1 - 11,100 (December 1996), 11,193
(1995 average), 11,000 (October 1994), 10,800 (November 1993), 8,100
(July 1991)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Vietnam:Communications

Telephones: 800,000 (1995 est.)

Telephone system: while Vietnam's telecommunication sector lags far
behind other countries in Southeast Asia, Hanoi has made considerable
progress since 1991 in upgrading the system; Vietnam has digitized all
provincial switch boards, while fiber-optic and microwave transmission
systems have been extended from Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City
to all provinces; the density of telephone receivers nationwide
doubled from 1993 to 1995, but is still far behind other countries in
the region; Vietnam's telecommunications strategy aims to increase
telephone density to 30 per 1,000 inhabitants by the year 2000 and
authorities estimate that approximately $2.7 billion will be spent on
telecommunications upgrades through the end of the decade
domestic: NA
international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean
region)

Radio broadcast stations: AM NA, FM 228, shortwave 0

Radios: 7.215 million (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 36 (repeaters 77)

Televisions: 2.9 million (1992 est.)

@Vietnam:Transportation

Railways:
total : 2,835 km (in addition, there are 224 km not restored to
service after war damage)
standard gauge: 151 km 1.435-m gauge
narrow gauge: 2,454 km 1.000-m gauge
other gauge: 230 km NA-m dual gauge (three rails)

Highways:
total : 106,048 km
paved: 27,466 km
unpaved: 78,582 km (1995 est.)

Waterways: 17,702 km navigable; more than 5,149 km navigable at all
times by