Textile and garment sector contribute to export earnings

The domestic textile and garment sectors were one of the biggest earner to economy in 2007. The economy has earned US$7.8 billion from garment and textiles exports.

The Vietnam Garment and Textiles Association attributed the achievements to all-out efforts by enterprises. The earnings have shown a year-on-year increase of 31%.

The US remained the largest market for Vietnamese garment and textiles, buying a total of US$4.5 billion, an increase of 33% over 2006, despite its strict monitoring mechanism. The EU countries and Japan were the second and the third largest importers of Vietnamese garment and textiles, respectively. Following the trend, the association plans to obtain an export turnover of US$9.5 billion in 2008, up 20% from 2007. The sector should build a long-term development strategy to mitigate impacts from the US examination mechanism and invest in training skilled workers in the segment.