The upcoming signing of a raft of free trade agreements, both bilateral and multilateral, between Vietnam and other nations and organisations is having a positive impact on the performance of the local textile and garment industry.
Accordingly, since late 2014 the sector's major players such as Phong Phu, Nha Be, Thai Nguyen and Hung Yen garment companies said they had already signed export orders lasting through most or all of the year.
Chairman of Hung Yen Garment Nguyen Xuan Duong said export orders are not a concern for the company as it had already signed export contracts with major customers through the end of the third quarter.
Last year Hung Yen Garment eyed a 16 per cent hike in total export value to $350 million, and now expects even better results this year thanks to more favourable export conditions.
Another industry leader, Ho Chi Minh City-based Nha Be Garment Corporation (NBC) revealed that is had signed export orders through the end of the year.
"Our main targets this year are boosting productivity while improving quality to achieve the best possible efficiency," said NBC deputy general director Nguyen Ngoc Lan.
According to deputy chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) Le Tien Truong, the sector's high export value of $24.5 billion (up 19 per cent on-year) in 2014 was the result of constant endeavours by businesses in the sector, and also from benefits of Vietnam's free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the EU, South Korea and the Customs Union as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Though these FTAs have yet to take effect, they have already motivated positive results with Vietnamese producers focusing their deal-making on countries 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, Japan $2.7 billion and South Korea $2 billion.
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 of $28-$28.5 billion this year, with exports to the US market hopefully surpassing $10 billion.
By The Hoang (VIR)
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