(VOV) – Garments play a major role in the Vietnamese economy and were one of the top exports in the first half of the year.
- Garment material imports rise 20% in H1
- Garment industry stands firm in global market
- Garment exports hit US$7.44 billion
The country is one of the worldwide garment manufacturing leaders, a role that sees no sign of abating, thanks to free trade pacts in the offing.
However, the sector is highly dependent on imported input materials to sustain production, leading many market analysts to propose alternative solutions for reducing dependence and increasing domestic production. Dang Phuong Dung, Secretary General of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), granted VOV an exclusive interview on the issue.
Following are key excerpts of the interview
VOV: Garment exports obtained impressive growth in the first half of this year. Could you elaborate on this?
Ms Dung: Garment exports achieved high growth in the first four months of the year, but declined over the latter two months due to the negative consequences flowing from the East Sea’s stand-off. However, overall exports in the six months still managed to reach US$10.4 million, a jump of 18% against the same period in 2013.
Both the US and the EU economies are rebounding and this helped spur positive growth in those markets, sufficient to offset the decline related to China.
VOV: It is said that garment development is not really sustainable in the long-term due to over dependence on imported materials. What is your assessment?
Dang Phuong Dung - Secretary General of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association
Ms Dung: Factually, the sector has been striving to reduce its dependence on imported materials for a long time. This is a part and parcel of the sector’s overall long-term development strategy. In the 2012-2013 period alone, the proportion of domestic materials used rose from 40% to 48%, which demonstrates positive progress is underway.
However, many obstacles still remain. Vietnam has no current viable options and must of necessity import 46% of its cotton from China, and a similar situation exist for other materials, although to a much more limited extent.
The bottom line is that garment sector places heavy reliance on Chinese raw materials and it is highly sensitive to fluctuations, subjecting it to many risks. Thus it is high time for us to devise proper solutions to resolve the problem.
VOV: What measures should the garment sector do to lessen dependence on imported materials and how long will it take the country to gear up domestic production or locate alternative sources for the materials?
Ms Dung: If we want to shift importing materials from China to other markets like India, Pakistan and ASEAN we must study whether their materials are proper and for which kinds of products.
In addition, we should call on more investment into the domestic support industry, especially dying and textiles. Businesses should take advantage of free trade agreements and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and strengthen coordination to bolster the development of domestic supply chains.
The garment sector is currently aiming to increase its domestic production of materials to 60-65% by 2020.
No country can produce all of the raw materials necessary for manufacturing and that is not Vietnam’s goal either. The most important thing is for the country to capitalize on the integration process and become fully integrated into the global economy.
VOV: Thank you very much.
Đăng ký: VietNam News