Workers at a garment-textile company in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has been considered an attractive destinationfor investors who are keen on the garment and textile sector, thanks tobenefits brought about by the bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements(FTAs) that the country has signed and is about to sign.
Lookingback more than one year ago, many domestic garment firms were facingsignificant hardships as orders were being shifted to countries with low labourcosts and tariffs, such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
However, injust a short period of time, after investing in technology and adjusting costsand inappropriate policies, Vietnam regained investors’ confidence, with a lotof large orders now returning to the country.
The VietnamTextile and Apparel Association (VITAS) explained that Vietnam is well-knownfor its high quality of garment and textile products and quick deliveryturnaround for sophisticated products.
Therefore,partners have returned to Vietnam after discovering that product quality anddelivery times were not always ensured in other countries.
Recently,Japan’s Itochu Group spent 5 billion JPY (47 million USD) buying an additional10 percent of shares in the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VINATEX).The purchase raised Itochu’s stake in Vinatex to 15 percent, making it thesecond largest stakeholder behind the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In March,the southern province of Binh Duong granted an investment licence to a garmentand textile project by Taiwan’s Apparel Far Eastern Co., worth 25 million USD.
Singapore’sHerberton Ltd., also recently carriedout the Nam Dinh Ramatex Textile and Garment Factory project worth 80 millionUSD in the northern province of Nam Dinh. The factory is expected to becomeoperational next year with a capacity of 25,000 tonnes of fabric of variouskinds and 15 million clothing items a year, creating jobs for around 3,000labourers.
Accordingto Chief Representative of VITAS in Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai,together with efforts to regain investors’ confidence, the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and other freetrade agreements (FTAs) have attracted investors to Vietnam.
Currently,Vietnam is involved in 16 bilateral and multilateral FTAs, including twonext-generation ones, namely the CPTPP and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement(EVFTA).
Once theybecome effective, more opportunities will be created for the garment andtextile sector, Mai added.
Vietnam isamong the world’s five biggest garment-textile exporters and producers. Thecountry’s garment-textile export turnover hit 16.5 billion USD in the first sixmonths of 2018, up 16.49 percent year-on-year.
Last year,the sector raked in 31.2 billion USD from exports, a year-on-year rise of 10.23percent. –VNA
VNA
