Integration: Bane or boon to garment exporters?
(VOV) - The nation’s garment and textile industry grossed revenues of over US$106 billion during the five-year period 2011-2015, according to the Vietnam Textiles and Garment Association (VITAS).
Vitas President Vu Duc Giang unveiled the figures at a conference on November 26 in Hanoi assessing the outlook for the industry over the five-year period 2016-2020 and the impact that free trade agreements may have.
“The major export markets are the US, EU, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and ASEAN,” said Giang, which are pretty much in a state of flux given the rapidly changing economic landscape brought about by global integration.
At the conference speakers tossed around a lot of ‘pie in the sky’ numbers for industry exports over the next five year’s but obviously no one can predict with any reasonable degree of certainty what the future holds.
This year, garment and textile exports are forecast to reach US$27.5 billion and who knows, if the stars line up and if the industry could achieve average annual growth of 11.5% maybe gross revenue might double by 2020.
However, more importantly Giang pointed out is that the focus should be on the creation of good paying jobs for Vietnamese workers because all of the profits from FDI companies will eventually be paid to their foreign owners.