Vietnam’s apparel and textile sector has clocked an export turnover of US $ 36 billion in 2018 – an impressive increase of 16 per cent compared to 2017.
This was mentioned by Vu Duc Giang, Chairman, Vietnam Textiles and Apparel Association (VITAS) while addressing a conference in Hanoi on 14 December.
The Chairman added that this is the highest increase in last 3 years. In 2015, the increase was of 12.1 per cent, while it was 4.07 per cent and 10.8 per cent in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
The export turnover of apparels alone in 2018 was US $ 28.7 billion, which is a rise of 14.4 per cent.
Le Tien Truong, General Director, Vietnam National Textiles and Garment Group (VINATEX) said that while the per cent rise in export of apparels was good, it was even better in the case of fabrics.
Truong said that the export turnover of fabric in 2018 was US $ 1.6 billion with a jump of 25.5 per cent. Besides, yarn export turnover saw a rise of 9.9 per cent to record US $ 3.9 billion. The trade surplus for the year was US $ 17.8 billion (increase of 14.3 per cent)
2019 too is expected to start with a bang as there are reports of many apparel firms already getting orders for the first 6 months and some even for the whole year.
At the conference, VITAS set a target of increasing the export turnover to US $ 40 billion for 2019 and bringing trade surplus to US $ 20 billion.
