Great prospect for Vietnam textile exports
Speaking at the seminar ‘Vietnam Trade Development phase 2016-2025’, Mrs. Do Kim Chi from the Commercial Research Institute stated that Vietnam’s textile has been widely recognized in most markets around the world and there is great prospect for further growth in exports.
USA, Japan, Korea, UK, Germany and China are the main markets for Vietnam’s textile. In specific , USA market accounted for 48% of the Vietnamese total textile export value. This is followed by Japan (12%), Korea (9%), Germany, UK and China with 3% for each country.
Turnover growth prospects in the textile imports from foreign countries are considerable. For example, Vietnam’s textile exports currently account for only 1% of the EU total import value of textile and garment. With Vietnam-EU FTA signed, the tax reduction from 12% to 0% for textile will increase competitiveness for Vietnamese textile to be imported to EU.
In the US market, despite having an annual grow of 12-13%, the export turnover of Vietnamese textile only equals to 9% of the total US market shares for textile imports. On the other hand, with an annual garment need of $40 billion, of which 95% are dependent on imports, Japan is becoming a great potential market. To add on, the free trade agreements between Vietnam and Eurasian Economic Union signed in May 2015 is expected to significantly improve the tax policy and create great appeal to businesses to boost exports to the Eurasian nations such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
According to many economic experts, the textile industry in Vietnam is likely to grow further in the future because the labour productivity can still be increased by 30% and the localization rate can rise by 20%. Furthermore, there are room for Vietnam to improve the quality of its products, transform its export methods from Original Equipment Manufacturing (simple processing) to Original Design Manufacturing (selling the products including design).
Assessed the general situation of imports and exports, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import-Export Department claimed that in the context of the global economic downturn, it is remarkable that Vietnam still achieved the export growth by 8%. According to the latest figures, Vietnam’s total exports and imports are expected to reach $178 billion and $176 billion respectively in 2016.
Source: 1, 2