More garment businesses expand scale
A dozen of garment and textile enterprises, mostly in northern region, have been investing in expanding production since 2009 in a trend that is forecast to be continued, said experts from the Vietnam Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex).
Analysing the positive trend, Nguyen Van Thoi, General Director of the Thai Nguyen Investment and Trade Company (TNG), said the world’s garment and textile suppliers are shifting their attention from China to Vietnam and in the country, the market is moving from the south to the north due to more labour competitiveness.
In addition, customers now tend to directly connect to suppliers instead of through intermediaries such as international contractors and retail groups, thus creating opportunities for development for Vietnamese garment firms, including TNG.
Recently, TNG invested 210 billion VND (11 million USD) in building its fourth plant, which is scheduled to be put into operation in the first quarter of 2011, bringing the company’s total sewing chains to 172, making it one of the country’s leading garment suppliers.
The TNG leader said that the investment was based on long-term and stable commitments and orders from its customers, including those from the US and Canada like Columbia , Sportswear, The Children’s Place and Capital.
After this project, TNG plans to invest further in its equipment with the aim of taking on more steps of international garment orders by 2015, Thoi said.
Earlier, the Nha Be Garment Joint Stock Corporation, which has 22 garment factories and eight trading companies, invested trillions of VND in nearly 10 projects despite fluctuation in the market. Two of them, with a combined investment capital of over 200 billion VND (over 10 million USD) will become operational late this month.
The new investment is expected to raise the company’s export turnover by between 20-25 percent this year, said Duong Thi Ngoc Dung, President of the Board of Directors of Nha Be.
According to experts, increasing investment in expand production is necessary at a time when Vietnam still has many advantages in sub-contracting. However, for sustainable development, enterprises should invest in supporting industries like materials processing, textile and dying in order to switch from sub-contracting to selling products of their owned designs.
Garment and textile have been Vietnam ’s leading export items with turnover hitting nearly 10 billion USD a year for the past two years.
In the first eight months of the year, the garment and textile sector earned almost 6.9 billion USD from exports, a 17.8 percent increase over the same period last year and is expected to earn 10.5 billion USD for the whole year.
Tags: Vietnam garment exports, Vietnam Garment industry