Vietnam’s garment and textile exports exceeded $36 billion last year and is expected to top $40 billion this year, according to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), whose chairman Vu Duc Giang recently said 7,000 enterprises in the sector provide jobs to 3 million. The growth of industry rose from 12 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent in 2018. While garment and textile export turnover of China posted negative growth with export turnover to the United States and the European Union being minus 0.37 per cent and minus 2.13 per cent respectively, the same for Vietnam was 7.57 per cent and 8.97 per cent respectively. This will force Chinese garment and textile companies to shift investments to Vietnam to take advantage of the benefits and market gap that free trade agreements brought to Vietnam, according to a Vietnamese media report. Vietnam’s garment and textile sector is expected to receive investments of up to $7 billion from China, $2.1 billion from South Korea, $1.6 billion from Taiwan and $0.75 billion from Japan.
