The Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) will pour over 4 trillion VND (190 million USD) into numerous projects including yarn, textile, garment, and cotton farms this year, CEO Tran Quang Nghi told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in a recent interview.

Prioritised projects include two plants that can dye 12-40 million metres of cloth per year, Nghi said.

Vinatex will also invest 2.2 trillion VND (105 million USD) in a complex which comprises a yarn – textile – garment mill, a water supply facility, a wastewater treatment plant, and accommodations for workers, he elaborated.

The group, Vietnam’s largest of its kind, has planned to set up an investment fund, called "TexFunds", with an initial capital of around 300-500 billion VND (14-24 million USD) in order to attract investments in infrastructure for the textile industry, which is quite costly at the beginning, Nghi added.

Early this year, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), signed an agreement to lend Vinatex 600 million USD in the period from 2014 to 2016.

The loan package will be used by the textile firm to improve the efficiency of its production, invest in more projects, and upgrade their manufacturing technology.

The state-owned group logged a trade surplus of over 1.7 billion USD in 2013, Le Tien Truong, deputy director of Vinatex, reportedly said, adding that it also aims to increase export value by 12 percent this year.

“Vietnam will find more opportunities in many places, apart from the US and New Zealand, in the presence of a TPP agreement with favorable terms and conditions,” Truong said.

Vinatex will build a 1,500-hectare textile industrial park by the end of 2014 in cooperation with two Chinese companies, according to the portal of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The 400 million USD project, which is located in the northern province of Nam Dinh, is expected to be the biggest textile industrial zone in the country, attracting a number of investors in the fields of dyeing, leather, garment, and textiles from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Doan Hong Phong, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the province will hand over clean land to the investors by the last quarter of this year, adding that Nam Dinh will create a good working environment for them.

Once fully operational, the industrial park will create an industrial production value of 3-4 billion USD each year, paying 300-400 million USD to the state budget, and generating160,000 jobs.-VNA