The upcoming signing of a raft of free trade agreements, bothbilateral and multilateral, between Vietnam and other nations andorganisations will have a positive impact on the performance of thelocal textile and garment industry, the Vietnam Investment Review (VIR)says.
Accordingly, since late 2014 the sector’s majorplayers such as Phong Phu, Nha Be, Thai Nguyen and Hung Yen garmentcompanies said they had already signed export orders lasting throughmost or all of the year.
Chairman of Hung Yen GarmentNguyen Xuan Duong was quoted as saying export orders are not a concernfor the company as it had already signed export contracts with majorcustomers through the end of the third quarter.
Last yearHung Yen Garment eyed a 16 percent hike in total export value to 350million USD, and now expects even better results this year thanks tomore favourable export conditions.
Another industry leader,Ho Chi Minh City-based Nha Be Garment Corporation (NBC) revealed thatis had signed export orders through the end of the year.
"Ourmain target this year aims to boost productivity while improvingquality to achieve the best possible efficiency," NBC Deputy GeneralDirector Nguyen Ngoc Lan was cited as saying.
According toDeputy Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas)Le Tien Truong, the sector’s high export value of 24.5 billion USD (up19 percent on-year) in 2014 was the result of constant endeavours bybusinesses in the sector, and also from benefits of Vietnam’s free tradeagreement (FTA) negotiations with the EU, the Republic of Korea and theCustoms Union as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Thoughthese FTAs have yet to take effect, they have already motivatedpositive results with Vietnamese producers focusing their deal-making oncountries involved in these agreements.
Consequently, Vietnam witnessed double-digit growth in its textile and garment export value to major markets last year.
Exports to the US were valued at nearly 9.8 billion USD, Japan 2.7 billion USD and the Republic of Korea 2 billion USD.
This also sets a premise for the textile and garment sector to see continued strong growth this year.
Accordingly,the textile and garment sector aims to achieve an export value of28-28.5 billion USD this year, with exports to the US market hopefullysurpassing 10 billion USD.-VNA
