A few businesses investing in the textiles and dye sector, which has received preferential policies and has a high added-value, are finding it difficult to match domestic demands.

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), domestic textile companies are only capable of supplying between 30-50 percent of the country’s demand for shirts, jeans and other basic products production. Meanwhile, vests, jackets and other high-quality fashion clothes are dependent mostly on imported materials.

The Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) said that it has come up with nearly 20 key textile and dye projects over the past five years to attract domestic and foreign investments but failed.

The group is striving to produce more materials domestically, including building the Dinh Vu fibres plant in the northern port city of Hai Phong . The plant is expected to meet 70 percent of the sector’s demand once it becomes operational in 2011.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has also devised a scheme to develop garment and textile materials input areas. A dying zone will also be set up in the Nhon Trach district of Dong Nai province between now and 2015.

In addition, two large materials production centres will be built in HCM City and five key textile and dye projects in a number of other localities will be upgraded to turn out 45 million m2 of cloth by the end of this year.

The acreage for growing cotton is also being increased. The country’s total area is expected to reach around 15,600 ha by the end of this year, 6,600 ha more than last year’s crop.

According to Vitas, Vietnam is now one of the world’s largest textile and garment exporters and textiles and garments also record the highest export growth among the country’s 10 staples.

The country’s textile and garment exports fetched around 3.8 billion USD in the first five months of the year, a year-on-year increase of more than 17 percent and this year’s export figure is expected to reach 10.5 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 15 percent, said Vitas.

The sector is focusing on Asian markets, because of the pricing advantage when compared with Eastern European, Central and South American countries./.