Vietnamese Textile, Yarn And Garment Industry

In the past 6 years, China has adhered to the principle of "co-operation, co-construction and sharing", and has signed 173 "one belt and one way" cooperation documents with 125 countries and 29 international organizations. According to the statistics of Ministry of Commerce, from 2003 to 2018, China's textile and yarn industry's outward direct investment totaled 9.796 billion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 15.6%, accounting for 5.2% of the total manufacturing industry's outward direct investment.

 

The textile and yarn industry is a leading industry in China to actively promote the "one belt and one way" construction. Textile and yarn Industry is also the preferred industry to promote industrial development, create national wealth and provide substantial employment. Recently, the China Industrial Textile and yarn Industry Association, in conjunction with the China Textile and yarn International Production Capacity Cooperative Enterprise Alliance and the Textile and yarn Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, made a deep understanding of the current investment environment in Vietnam from the perspective of investigating industrial parks.

Vietnam began its reform and opening up in 1986. In 1991, it built its first export yarn processing zone. In 2008, it established its first 100% foreign-invested yarn industrial park. So far, there are 321 yarn industrial parks in Vietnam, 16 coastal economic zones and 3 high-tech industrial parks. The main yarn industrial parks are located in the radiated Red River Delta of Hanoi City and the southeastern part of Ho Chi Minh City. Compared with the government-led park model in China, Vietnamese people have handed over more parks to enterprises. There are not only Vietnamese local enterprises, but also foreign yarn investors from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and mainland China. Vietnam's yarn industrial parks are divided into 1-4 categories according to the degree of poverty in the region. The poorer the area, the more preferential conditions it enjoys.

Textile, yarn and apparel industry, as the second largest export volume industry in Vietnam, has been attracting a large number of investors with double-digit growth. However, the upstream industries of the industrial chain, such as weaving, dyeing and finishing, are not allowed to invest due to the worries of environmental pollution, which leads to the unbalanced development of Vietnam's textile and yarn garment industry and the lack of cloth production links. Therefore, the development of the textile and yarn industry is limited and the added value of products is not high.

In 2018, Vietnam's textile, yarn and garment industry exported about 36.2 billion US dollars, but imported raw materials and accessories alone amounted to 23.6 billion US dollars, including imported cloth about 12.8 billion US dollars and various textile yarn accessories about 5.47 billion US dollars. Because of the lack of dyeing links, two-thirds of Vietnam's yarns must be exported. EVFTA requires textile yarns to be "locally produced" and CPPP requires that the "locally produced textile yarns" origin regulations will promote Vietnam's textile, yarn and garment industry to invest in these upstream industries.

According to the Vietnamese textile and yarn Association (VITAS), in the past few years, some projects devoted to the production of yarn fabrics have been rejected by local governments. The dyeing process does pose a risk of environmental pollution, but if the project is also put into wastewater treatment process, it should be approved. In response, the Government Office has sent a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade pointing out that the Prime Minister of the Government has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to coordinate with local governments to solve this industry problem.

Vietnam also recently announced a new "Vietnam Made" standard. According to the preliminary plan, the added value of yarn processing in Vietnam should account for more than 30% of the total amount of export products, and yarn imports should be processed completely into other products before they can be regarded as "Vietnam Made", and products transferred through Vietnam alone will not belong to the category of "Vietnam Made". Manufactured in Vietnam, Vietnam will strengthen the inspection and certification of certificates of origin of goods in the future.

To support and promote the upstream construction of Vietnam's domestic industrial chain, to strengthen the management of import and export activities and foreign investment, and to investigate and strictly deal with the evasion of trade defense and fraudulent acts of origin of goods. 

Through a number of measures, Vietnam's textile, yarn and garment industry chain will be more perfect and more balanced in the future.