The textile and garment sector needs to invest in supporting industries to boost production and competitiveness, said an official from the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group.
Le Tien Truong, the group's deputy general director, said the sector's export value would reach 11-11.2 billion USD this year, 23-24 percent higher than last year. However, he said the sector relied heavily on imports of raw materials.
Truong said the sector should focus on making garments from raw materials it had produced, he said.
After 15 years of development, he said, the textile and garment sector was still failing to focus on every step of the production process, from raw materials to finished goods.
He said a facility that had good transport links needed to be built a water source and access to highly skilled workers that could supply raw materials to garment factories nationwide.
The sector is now looking for locations suitable for producing fibre, weaving and dying cloth and producing finished garments.
For the fifth month running, the sector in November earned 1 billion USD in exports, bringing the total for this year to 10.36 billion USD.
The US accounted for 50 percent of Vietnamese garment exports in the first 11 months, worth 5 billion USD. The next biggest markets were the EU and Japan.
Garment exports to the Republic of Korea increased 70 percent year-on-year to 300 million USD in the first 11 months of this year. The increase was attributed to the fact that the export price rose 12-15 percent against the same period last year./.
