The clothing export sector imports a majority of its raw material requirements, which is a drain on foreign exchange, due to a shortage of investment in new technologies as well as un-viable cotton growing plans.
The government has envisaged a target of producing one billion meters of fabric by 2015, which does not seem possible under the current circumstances, said a senior official of the Ministry of Industry.
Currently the industry is importing nearly 80 percent of its raw material requirements and the situation may not change in the next few years, said the official.
He said, the textile industry needs a huge amount of funds amounting to billions of US dollars for technological renovation, particularly for the construction of new yarn and fabric manufacturing facilities.
Cotton-growing area in the country had substantially shrunk, from tens of thousands of hectares 10 years ago to between only 3,000 and 4,000 hectares now and the key reason is low and unstable prices.
An official of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), said that, some 2,000 large and small garment and textile enterprises employed around two million workers, but the country was still short of some 200,000 workers.
He added by saying that, “It's necessary to invest in high technology to boost capacity which could help solve the problem of shortage of workers and warned that the shortage could aggravate as workers looked for remunerative wages.
Vitas expects export revenue from the garment and textile industry to reach around US $9.5 billion in 2009, up by 5 percent year on year and has also targeted a export turnover of $10.5 billion next year.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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