A number of textile and garment enterprises are facing risks of close-down due to difficulties in export markets and weak competitiveness in the domestic market, threatening unemployment for more than 10,000 people, the online newswire VietNamNet reported.
Tet Holiday, or Lunar New Year 2009, ought to have been a good chance for selling apparel products, but the industry lost during the occasion, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Sales of clothes for adults represented only 94.1 per cent in January as compared with the same period last year. Beside the reason that consumers reduce expenditure, domestic garment products are inferior to Chinese ones with cheaper prices and better designs.
Many apparel exporters are on the edge of close-down due to drop of orders. Some foreign-invested businesses in the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Vung Tau and Long An have closed down, sacking a number of workers.
The exporters will face more difficulties when prices of textile and garment products in the key export markets are forecast to fall by more than 20 per cent, especially, the U.S. - Vietnam’s biggest apparel importer – will reduce textile and garment import by 15 per cent.
Facing the situation, textile and garment enterprises have proposed the government to deduct 1 per cent of export turnover to give financial support to workers in difficult companies.
The enterprises also suggested supporting banking interest rates and giving them VND50 billion from the state budget to carry out trade promotion activities.
In order to reduce risks from much dependence on some key markets, textile and garment enterprises are expanding exports to the Middle East, East Europe and Africa.
Apparel is now Vietnam’s second biggest forex earner with value of US$9.1 billion last year, up 17.5 per cent on-year.
A representative from the industry said recently that export turnover in 2009 is maybe equal to 2008. (VietNamNet)
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