HANOI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnam's Garment and Textile Association said that the country is making efforts to boost garment and textile exports up by 6 percent in the second half of the year, the local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Wednesday.
Vietnam suffered a 4.7 percent decrease year-on-year in export turnover of garment and textile in the first half year to 4.14 billion U.S. dollars, said the association.
The decrease was due to shrinking demand from the country's traditional markets caused by the impacts of the global economic crisis, said Le Quoc An, chairman of the association.
In the first six months this year, garment and textile exports to the United States fell more than five percent, while the country's exports to the European Union countries went down by 4 percent, said An.
To accelerate exports in the second half, the association has been seeking more support from Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade to help local garment producers and exporters intensify trade promotion in new markets like China's Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore.
In immediate time, Vietnam has already started a scheme to establish units to produce materials for the sector instead of using imports. Such domestically-made materials as cotton fibre, synthetic fibre and cloth would create sustainable sources of materials for the country's garment and textile sector, said An.
For long-term measures, the country planned to restructure the country's garment and textile sector in the way of applying advanced technology, bringing in high productivity with higher quality and lower cost.
