Vietnam’s domestic textile and garment industry is still striving to reach its export revenue target of $40 billion this year despite facing several difficulties, according to Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) chairman Vu DucGiang, who said the industry needs export value growth of at least 11-12 per cent for the rest of the year to achieve this target.
Garment-textile sector growth was only 9.1 per cent in the third quarter, much lower than the same period in 2018, the association said. However, it was higher than other textile producers including China, India and Bangladesh.
The association is hoping textile enterprises will be able to deliver big orders to push export value up this month.
Canada holds a lot of potential for Vietnam with import value of textiles and garments reaching more than $13 billion each year, while the latter’s textile and apparel exports to this market are worth only about $550 million per year.
Vietnam does not have a free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada, and therefore, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) opens the door for its textile and apparel products.
Than Duc Viet, general director of Garment 10 Corporation, said to achieve export success, enterprises need to be aware of the requirements on price, quality, and quantity and production time. Moreover, they must also ensure production stability, he said.
VITAS said the industry still faced several challenges like low labour productivity, lack of high quality human resources and processing products rather than manufacturing. Other challenges include increasing protectionism, higher quality demands from importing nations and environment and technical tests, according to a report in a Vietnamese daily.
VITAS said domestic apparel producers are facing falling export orders. Since mid-2019, some businesses had been able to sign export contracts for small quantities each month. Meanwhile, in the same period last year, many large enterprises had export orders stacked up till the end of the year.
