Sewing shirts for exports in Viet Tien Garments Joint Stock Company. (Photo: Cao Thang)

(VOVworld ) – Vietnam’s garments and textiles sector made a trade surplus of over 5.3 billion USD in the first 8 months of this year, up 24% year on year despite difficulties in the market and fluctuating prices. VOV’s To Tuan reports on the sector’s growth in this period of global financial hardship.

Like many other economic sectors, this year Vietnam’s garments and textiles industry have faced numerous difficulties caused by the continuing global economic crisis and the level of public debt in some Euro-zone countries. Orders from the country’s traditional major markets including the US, Japan, and the EU have fallen due to huge stockpiles and the low price of input materials. To survive in such difficult time, the Vietnam National Textiles and Garments Group, Vinatex, has prioritized cutting costs and reducing waste during production. Since the beginning of this year, 14 VITAS key companies have signed a commitment to cut expenditure by at least 5%, including administrative costs, raw materials and energy as well as reducing stocks. Le Tien Truong, Deputy Director General of VINATEX, says ‘VITAS is still of the view that only companies who are competent in production and competitiveness can exist in such difficult times, seeing it as natural filtering. This will help the country’s textiles industry to re-structure itself and still satisfy to need to increase exports. All domestic companies can do is to improve their competitiveness through productivity, service quality and customer satisfaction.’

VINATEXs’ statistics show that the country’s export turnover of garments and textiles saw an increase of between 6% to 10.8 billion USD in the last 8 months. However the country only imported only raw materials worth 5.5 bilion USD, down 7% against last year. Vuong Dinh Hue, Finance Minister, says ‘VINATEX has paid a lot of attention to companies that have successfully satisfied the most demanding import controls. The Group has seen that some its members have asserted themselves on the market and can compete equally with other economic sectors, both domestically and internationally.’

To achieve the target for exports set for the remaining months of this year, the sector is continuing to lower the amount of individual one off orders while increasing the number of Free-on-Board and Original Design Manufacturing contracts. It is also promoting the use of materials that are made-in-Vietnam. In addition, priority will also be given to increasing Vietnam’s market share in the US, EU, Japan, and particularly China with its huge population and massive market. The sector will treasure building up successful brand names in these markets. It will also increase the application of new technical standards and use of local materials, enhance the inter-sector links, and introduce preferential treatment for workers. Vietnam now estimates an export growth of 13%, equivalent to 18 billion USD in revenue for the whole year.

To Tuan