Garment sector aims high

Viet Nam’s garment and textile industry has set an ambitious target of US$13 billion in export earnings for this year, according to the Viet Nam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex).

The General Statistics Office reports that garment and textile exports in December passed $1.15 billion, bringing the total export turnover of the industry to $11.17 billion, a 23.2-per-cent increased over 2009.

To achieve the target for 2011, the sector would focus on maintaining current customers and instructing makers to seek out new markets and customers, Vu Duc Giang, chairman of Vinatext, told online newspaper VietnamPlus.

It had also made efforts to expand its market share in traditional and new markets.

Viet Nam is the fifth largest garment and textile supplier in the world.

The sector would also raise its localisation ratio to between 55 and 60 per cent in 2011.

In July polyester manufacturers would turn out the first products in the country with 80-90 per cent domestically sourced polyester thread,reducing reliance on imports.

Giang added that cotton growing remained problematic for the local garment and textile industry. Viet Nam was a country with a large population and not much land and did not have a comprehensive policy to develop industrial crops for industrial sector.

Viet Nam did not have cotton growing farms, said Giang. Vinatex was currenty working with provinces to encourage farmers to alternate cotton plants with other crops.

The country’s garment and textile sector was developing strongly with a growth rate of between 20 and 25 per cent while rates of cotton growth remained very low because of poor soil quality and small cotton farming area.

He said it would be difficult to develop a cotton growing industry that met the requirement of the garment and textile industry.

“In the context of an open market, import and export are indispensable. The country’s current export surplus remains higher than export by between 40-50 per cent. We should not worry about cotton imports,” said Giang.

Vinatex was preparing to establish a raw material manufacturing joint stock company with its member companies to work with provinces to earmark farm land for cotton growing. It was looking for farmland ranging in size from 50 to 100ha.

Domestic garment and textile production was expected to achieve growth of between 18 and 22 per cent in 2010.

Viet Tien Garments had a growth rate of 40 per cent and a total revenue of more than VND3.7 trillion ($176 million). Phong Phu garment makers saw an increase of 258 per cent. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam garment exports, Vietnam Garment industry