Vietnam exports garment accessories for first time

For Vietnam, the world’s fourth largest garment exporting nation, 2013 marked the

first year of garment accessories exports. Previously, the country had to import most input material from overseas.

According to Vinatex, the Vietnam Garment and Textile Group, garment accessories exports accounted for 700 million US dollars last year, or 3.5 percent of the total of 20 billion US dollars of all garment, textile and accessories exports in 2013. For 2014, the garment sector aims for 12 percent export growth. Successful negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement should help reaching this goal.

Thanks to the availability of domestic garment accessories, apparel makers are finally able to cut costs in the form of pricy material purchases from China, Korea, Bangladesh and other countries.

Director Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen of Garment 10, one of Vietnam’s leading apparel producers with more than 200 million products annually for the domestic and international market, confirms that the proportion of locally made materials in its products has increased over the years from 30–40 percent initially to currently 60 percent, according to the Voice of Vietnam.

The garment and textile industry is not the only one suffering from a lack of domestic supplies – as many as 30 Vietnamese economic and technical sectors are said to rely on imported materials. After Vietnam joins the TPP, local sourcing and availability of supplies will become even more important to attract international buyers, investors and manufacturers. Thus, experts believe that Vietnam will have to further scale up its domestic production and exports in the future.