HANOI, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is estimated to gain export revenues of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in January, posting a year-on-year rise of 19.7 percent, local newspaper Vietnam News quoted the General Statistics Office (GSO) as reporting on Monday.

    In the first month of the year, the country's five biggest foreign currency earners were crude oil, textiles and garments, footwear, seafood and coffee.

    Crude oil exports reached 826 million dollars, up 46.5 percent over last January due to higher world oil price, although export volumes declined by 12.7 percent year-on-year to 1.16 million tons.

    Textile and garment exports rose by 20.7 percent to 720 million dollars, while footwear and seafood exports reached 400 million dollars and 290 million dollars, down 5.4 percent and up 15.6 percent, respectively against the same period of last year. Coffee exports declined by 25.8 percent to 260 million dollars.

    Exports, recording high growth rates with yearly increases ranging from 23.4 percent to 50 percent, included electronic products and computers, electrical wires and cables, rubber, and cashew nuts. These products also gained export turnovers ranging from 65 million dollars to 200 million dollars.

    The country's import value jumped 27 percent to 5.5 billion dollars, representing a trade deficit of one billion dollars for the month, said the GSO.

    Vietnam has targeted export turnovers of 58.6 billion dollars in 2008. To this end, the country is focusing on improving quality of traditional export products, expanding production scale of items with high export revenues and growth, and those using large domestically-produced materials. It is also intensifying trade promotion and market expansion.

    Vietnam reaped export revenues of over 48 billion dollars in 2007, up 20.5 percent over 2006.