On March 28, in Hanoi, Danish Embassy in Vietnam organized seminar “Vietnam-Denmark cooperation in apparel industry” with the participation of over 20 leading Danish apparel companies and Vietnamese businesses. According to Danish Ambassador John Nielsen, Danish businesses wish to seek business opportunities and Vietnamese partners to transfer technology in this field.
Vietnam has currently some 3,000 businesses engaging in garment industry with small and medium sized enterprises making up 80-85 percent. FDI enterprises account for 18 percent, private enterprises 81 percent and State-owned enterprises one percent. With big human resources, competitive workforce and high skill meeting the demand of up-market, Vietnam is one of the five biggest garment export countries in the world with export value in 2010 of US$11.2 billion (up by 23 percent).
In 2010, Vietnamese export to Denmark worth US$195 million (0.27 percent of Vietnamese total export value) while the import was US$116.4 million. In the first two months of 2011, Vietnamese export value to Denmark was US$39.4 million, up by 59.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Main Vietnamese export items were garment, footwear, and consumers’ goods. In 2010, Vietnamese garment export value to Denmark was US$64.8 million, or 33.2 percent of Vietnamese export value to Denmark and 60.5 percent more than 2009.
Danish Ambassador John Nielsen said that bilateral trade with Vietnam is developing in scale and depth. Some 125 Danish companies are operating in Vietnam including 12 companies engaging in garment sector. In 2010, the bilateral trade posted at over US$300 million and Denmark wishes to increase the bilateral partnership to a new height.
According to Vice Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, Vietnamese government has approved the investment strategy for garment industry to 2015 and vision of 2020. Ministry of Industry and Trade has also endorsed development plan to 2015 and human resources development for apparel industry, production plan of one billion metres of textile for export as well as cotton plantation in Vietnam. Those are specific measures taken by Vietnamese government to support the apparel industry and related businesses in Vietnam.
For her part, Ms Dang Phuong Dung, Vice President and Secretary General of Vietnam Textile Association (VITAS), said that the weaknesses of Vietnamese textile industry are the imports of big amount of materials, technology, marketing, managerial skill and fashion designing. Furthermore, Vietnamese textile industry has to compete fiercely with China, India, and Bangladesh. Vietnamese weaknesses in textile industry are precisely the advantages of Denmark enterprises. Therefore, the exchanges and cooperation between businesses of the two countries are essential and will bring high efficiency and interests for the two countries.
Ambassador John Nielsen believed that to develop further the bilateral cooperation, Denmark will support Vietnamese garment industry. Vietnamese commodities are of high quality. It is important to find partners to increase the competitiveness and establish partnership to increase economic growth of the two countries.
Nguyen Mai
Vietnamese
