He added that this is a big improvement as the rate had remainedat around 50% for a long time.
Vinatex’s report also revealed that the whole industry's exportrevenue between January and August was worth 30.2 billion USD, a rise of nearly20% over the same period last year and the highest growth rate of the past decade.It was estimated that the industry ran a trade surplus of around 17 billion USDin the eight months.
Truong said that among textile and garment exporting countries, Vietnamwas the earliest to ease restrictions for normal operation after the COVID-19pandemic compared to Bangladesh, India and China, which enabled the country tograb the opportunity to promote garment exports.
However, challenges remain for the rest of the year, he said.
He pointed out that other exporting countries are also applying similarpolicies to promote post-pandemic recovery and resume normal production andbusiness. Meanwhile, global demand is declining on the global economic slowdownand rising inflation.
Vinatex forecast that the average export revenue will decrease to 3.1-3.2billion USD per month in the four remaining months of this year, compared tothe average of 3.8 billion USD per month from January to August.
Truong said that the textile and garment industry hopes to receivethe Government’s support in terms of tax and credits.
In the medium and long term, he said that Vinatex will invest inpromoting a green and circular economy, adding that the investment will belarge, however.
The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association said that Vietnamesegarment and textile enterprises face fierce competition from other majorexporters in China, Bangladesh, India and Turkey, in markets with free tradedeals, with the rule of origin from yarn and fabric onward being a weakness ofVietnam’s garment industry which has to import 80% of fabrics to producegarments for export.
Statistics showed that, on average, Vietnam spent around 2 billionUSD on importing raw materials, mainly from China.
Besides, importing countries are also increasing product criteria.The Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden recently said that the EU and other Nordiccountries such as Norway and Iceland are requiring the textile and garmentindustry to develop more sustainably and circularly.
These countries set stricter requirements for natural andsynthetic fibres, which must be organic, recycled or of biological origin. Forexample, the cotton used in Nordic eco-labelled clothing must not begenetically modified, wholly organic or recycled.
Some Vietnamese firms were investing in research and developmentof raw materials to reduce the dependence on imported materials, but the supplyremained limited.
The association urged the development strategy for the textile andfootwear industries to 2030 with a vision to 2035 to be approved early tocreate conditions for the formation of large industrial parks with theconcentrated wastewater treatment system, advanced technologies, and greentechnologies to attract investment in textile and dyeing.
The association said that this will help tackle the bottlenecks inthe fabric supply for garment export and meet origin requirements for taxincentives from free trade agreements.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said it is important to raisesolutions to encourage technology renovation for the weaving and dyeingindustry and build a support industry for the garment industry.
The focus should be on attracting investments in treatingwastewater and establishing production chains. /.