BEIJING, Dec. 12 -- Bilateral trade between China and Vietnam maintained steady growth in the first 11 months of this year, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday.

Goods trade between the two countries reached 1.45 trillion yuan (about 203.73 billion U.S. dollars) from January to November, up 3.6 percent year on year.

In November alone, bilateral trade jumped 12.5 percent year on year to hit a monthly record high of 161.92 billion yuan.

Vietnam has since 2016 remained China's largest trading partner among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with bilateral trade accounting for 25 percent of China's total trade with this bloc in the first 11 months of 2023.

The two countries have recorded increasingly close industrial and supply chain cooperation in recent years. In the first 11 months of this year, the import and export of intermediate goods reached 1.01 trillion yuan, amounting to 69.8 percent of China-Vietnam trade for the period.

The two countries also have large space for cooperation in the agricultural sector. In the first 11 months of 2023, China imported 44.62 billion yuan of Vietnamese agricultural products, marking a year-on-year increase of 20.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Chinese vegetables and temperate fruits are also welcomed by the Vietnamese market. China exported 34.31 billion yuan of agricultural products to Vietnam during the same period, an increase of 3.1 percent year on year.

"Since the beginning of the winter, fruits and vegetables produced in Yunnan Province have entered the peak export season and are favored by the Vietnamese market," said Wang Xin, an official at the Hekou entry-exit border inspection station in southwest China's Yunnan Province.