Vietnam spent 978 million U.S. dollars on importing pharmaceutical products in the first 11 months this year, up 27 percent year-on-year, said a new report of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

In November, the country's import of pharmaceutical products cost 98 million U.S. dollars, up 15 percent year-on-year.

In the first 11 months, Vietnam spent most of its money to purchase pharmaceutical products from France with import turnover of 173 million U.S. dollars.

The other big providers of pharmaceutical products to Vietnam included India, the Republic of Korea and Germany.

As highly dependent on imported medicines, Vietnam Ministry of Health had a plan to pour more capital to develop the country's pharmaceutical industry, especially medicine production. The Vietnam's health sector set a target to increase the use of domestically-made medicines to 70 percent by 2015.