'Vietnamese domestic garment market has rich potential'

22 Aug '13

1 min read

Although there are several advantages in promoting garment and textile products in foreign countries, Vietnamese domestic market also has rich potential, experts said at a workshop on the draft plan for Vietnamese textile industry 2020-2030.

The draft development plan prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, stresses on improving designing capabilities and catering to the domestic market.

Vietnamese apparel companies are mainly focused on exports and they enjoy only about 45-50 percent share in the domestic market, speakers at the workshop said.

According to them, with a population of nearly 90 million and a growth rate of over 2 percent per year, there is huge market for garments in Vietnam.

In 2010, Vietnamese citizens spent approximately US$ 2.2 billion on clothing, and increased their spending to US$ 2.51 billion by 2012, showing an average increase of 10-12 percent per year.

The draft plan also points at some problems faced by the apparel industry, including labour shortages and high dependence on imports for raw materials.

If these problems are not overcome, it would become difficult to achieve US$ 32 billion export target by 2020. In fact, achieving 60 percent local content in garments will be a big challenge, experts said.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

More Apparel/Garments News - Vietnam...