Vietnam's textile industry has ambitions to penetrate deeper into the European market.

Many Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises have recently participated in a fair in France to seek opportunities to penetrate deeper into the European market.

From September 14 to 17, within the framework of the program "National Trade Promotion 2015", the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association supported more than 10 large enterprises in the Vietnamese garment industry to attend the Apparel Sourcing Fair for the first time, a prestigious fair for enterprises and suppliers of ready-made garments, and the Texworld Fair for the second time.

With many activities from displaying collections, organizing seminars on the prospects of Vietnam's textile and garment industry to displaying, introducing products and meeting and exchanging with European and international partners, Vietnam's presence has made a great impression and is an important preparation for a long-term strategy and stronger development of Vietnam's textile and garment industry.

Many delegates attended the workshop on Vietnam's textile and garment prospects.

Apparel Sourcing is a prestigious fair for ready-made garment businesses and suppliers and Texworld is the world's largest fair specializing in garment accessories materials, usually held twice a year in February and September in Paris - the fashion capital of the world.

Attending these two major events were famous enterprises in the Vietnamese textile and garment industry such as May 10, Hoa Tho, Jeansresources, Thai Son, Babeeni...

Within the framework of the fair, the Trade Office - Embassy of Vietnam in France coordinated with EVAlliance (EU - Vietnam alliance) and the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association to organize a workshop to evaluate the Vietnamese textile and garment industry as well as the industry's opportunities after signing the FTA with the EU.

Speaking at the workshop, EVAlliance Chairman JF.Limantour said that Vietnam is currently the 6th largest garment exporter in Europe, accounting for 3% of the market share. Although this is still a relatively modest figure, it should be noted that just 3 years ago, Vietnam was still ranked 9th out of 10 garment exporting countries in the region and only accounted for 2.5% of the market share. In addition, the growth rate of Vietnam's textile and garment export industry in Europe is increasing rapidly and steadily.

Mr. JF.Limantour - President of EU - Vietnam Alliance (EVAlliance).

Mr. Limantour also analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Vietnamese garment enterprises based on detailed research and data.

“Vietnamese businesses are quite solid, well-organized and have highly skilled, hard-working workers. Vietnam has many advantages to become Europe’s leading supplier in the textile and garment sector,” Mr. Limantour assessed.

Regarding the Free Trade Agreement to be signed with the EU, Mr. Limantour said that although there is a disadvantage that the agreement is not balanced in the textile sector, the textile industry has many opportunities from this agreement for Vietnam to become a real and balanced partner with Europe.

Textile strategy to welcome FTA and TPP

At the workshop, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Ngoc Son affirmed that the Vietnamese government gives important priority to the development of the textile and garment industry and expressed his wish that Vietnam and the EU will continue to cooperate successfully in the garment sector.

Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Ngoc Son.

The Ambassador hopes that the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which just concluded negotiations in August and will soon be signed, will strengthen the presence of the Vietnamese garment industry in the EU and create opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to boost product exports, achieving the goal of making Vietnam one of the top three garment exporters in Europe.

Regarding the impact of the Vietnam-EU FTA on the Vietnamese garment industry, Nguyen Canh Cuong, Commercial Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in France, said that the agreement will benefit both sides. The textile and garment industries of the two sides do not necessarily have to compete head-to-head but can cooperate to create new competitiveness.

“Both sides can take advantage of each other: Vietnam has a large workforce of highly skilled workers, while Europe has many high-end fashion designers and a global distribution and marketing system. In addition, in addition to tax incentives, the Vietnamese Government will reform domestic policies and regulations as required by the Agreement, creating an attractive investment environment for Vietnamese and European businesses to cooperate in production and thereby export goods worldwide,” Mr. Cuong assessed.

Challenges Ahead

According to Mr. Tran Van Pho, Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, actively participating in these two fairs is a preparation for the upcoming strategy of the textile and garment industry when the FTA with the EU is signed; in which, besides the opportunities, the textile and garment industry does not forget to identify the challenges ahead.

Mr. Tran Van Pho, Vice President of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association.

Mr. Tran Van Pho emphasized: “The agreements about to be signed such as the FTA with the EU or the TPP will bring many opportunities and we believe in these agreements and we are having development strategies. Participating in the fair is also preparing for the upcoming development strategy. The biggest difficulty with the European market is first of all the issue of raw materials and the FTA about to be signed will take 7 years for the textile and garment industry to enjoy a 0% tax rate, and this is a disadvantage for us”.

Regarding the development of the industry in the coming time, Mr. Pho shared that the Vietnamese textile and garment industry will develop in a modern, effective and sustainable direction, taking export as the basic method for the development of the industry and making the most of FTAs.

Also within the framework of this Apparel sourcing fair, Vietnamese garment products were introduced to a large number of guests and visitors through performances by professional French models.

It is estimated that Texworld and Apparel Sourcing Fair will have the participation of more than 600 enterprises in the garment sector from 27 countries and territories. It is expected that in 3 days of operation, the Fair will attract about 14,000 guests including retail distributors, intermediaries, investors, marketers,... from 103 countries around the world./.

According to VOV.VN