President Barack Obama on Monday gave approval for the U.S. Export-Import Bank to extend a $125.9 million loan to a state-owned company in Vietnam to buy a U.S.-made telecommunications and television satellite, the White House said, according to Reuters.

Phil Cogan, a spokesman for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, said the approval was needed because Vietnam is a "Marxist-Leninist" economy, and not because the technology involved is particularly sensitive.

U.S. law requires a presidential determination that Ex-Im Bank loans of more than $50 million to Marxist-Leninist economies are in the U.S. national interest, Cogan said.

The proposed sale, to Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Groups, a wholly state-owned company must also be presented to Congress for a 35-day review before it can be approved by the Ex-Im Bank board It is also Obama's presidential determination that the Ex-Im Bank did not provide the name of the U.S. seller, and Cogan said he was still checking to see if he could release the name of the company.

According to Cogan, Vietnam is the fast-growing Southeast Asian country and has "enormous infrastructure needs" ranging from renewable energy to highways, airports and telecommunications.

U.S. Ex-Im Bank President Fred Hochberg has visited the country twice to promote U.S. exports./.