As per recent reports, Vietnam’s apparel and textile exports would see a healthy 10 per cent rise to $23 billion this year. However, experts have cautioned against rising raw material imports, power and transportation costs, which could play a spoiler in the long run.

According to the National Garment and Textile Group Vinatex, since the sector is overly dependent on raw material imports to meet its production, it leads to significant rise in costs. Also, rise in electricity and transportation costs are putting additional pressure on the cost of production.

Vinatex report points out that the sector lacks trained workers and has an uneven distribution of workers throughout the country. Experts feel there is also a need to improve design and product quality, while curbing smuggling and black market activities, to compete in the export market. The industry’s aim of becoming a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by 2018 and can be fulfilled if the country works on improving all these aspects.

Vinatex says that its priorities are to maintain an export growth by focusing on increasing the rate of growth in original design manufacturer (ODM) products to 12-14 per cent. As for Free-on-Board (FOB) products, the group must optimise orders to bring added value to their products. The industry body will also try to duplicate a production model in 2014 which has been applied successfully in similar businesses to reduce stockpiles, improve labour productivity and increase competitive edge of products apart from increasing raw material production base and better co-ordination between the textile and apparel manufacturers and exporters.

www.vinatex.com