In welcome news, Le Tien Truong, General Director of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VINATEX) has said that garment and textile enterprises of the country have received enough orders to keep them busy through the first quarter of this year. Addressing a press conference on January 9, Truong said that in 2017, the group targets a rise of 11 per cent in export turnover, 14 per cent in production value and 12 per cent in revenue.

He predicted that this year, Vietnam’s garment and textile sector will face numerous challenges including a lack of support in taxation policies as several important trade deals such as the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will not become effective in 2017. Competition will become fiercer as other countries will continue attracting orders thanks to their advantages in tax and exchange rate, he said, adding that the instability in the EU economy will also affect the industry.

He further noted that last year was gloomy for the world apparel sector. Major importers including the US, the EU and Japan experienced low or decreased demand for garment and textile products. Vietnam’s apparel also saw under-expectation result with 28.3 billion USD in export, up 5.7 per cent year-on-year.

VINATEX earned over 2.5 billion USD, a rise of 5 per cent over 2015 with a pre-tax profit of over 41 trillion VND on a 5 per cent year-on-year increase. The average income of its employees rose 8 per cent over the previous year to reach 6.7 million VND per month. Truong also said that the results showed the great efforts of the sector, as Vietnam recorded higher growth than major competitors such as China, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia.