According to Mr Le Trung Hai, Deputy Director of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), although 2008 had been a difficult year for most of the industries, textile and garment sector stood second in the list of heighest foreign exchange earners with a value of US $9.1 billion.
In the period from January to August, the textile and garment industry was struggling with high price of material combined with soaring interest rate and in the last 4 months, the impact of global economic crisis reduced the number of export orders leading to high volume of inventory and affecting the life of textile and garment workers.
Vinatex's primary statistics showed that many enterprises had to slash down working-hour due to decline in orders and the threat of closing or going bankrupt is real. Previously, importers used to take orders for the whole year, however, now they only sign contracts for just one or two month.
2009 is predicted to be a challenging year for textile and garment industry because of global economic crisis. In addition, the export of Vietnam's textile and garment products to its key market US will be more difficult because US has removed its quota imposed on China's products, main direct competitor of the country.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - Vietnam