During an online conference by the Vietnamese Trade Office in India and the Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce, Vietnamese and Indian businesses sought partnership opportunities in garment and textile sector. A. Sakthivel, Chairman. Apparel Export Promotion Council said, the garment and textile sector makes up more than 2 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The sector has created jobs for more than 45 million laborers and made up 15 percent of the country’s total export revenue in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, he noted, pointing out that the garment-textile market of India is estimated to worth 100 billion USD in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Bui Trong Thoan from the Vietnam’s Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises said that Vietnam has been a bright spot in the gloomy global economy, and among the few countries posting positive growth in 2020 with economic expansion of 2.91 percent, total import-export revenue of 543.9 billion USD and trade surplus of 19.1 billion USD.

Pham Minh Huong, former Managing Director of the Vietnam Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex), noted that Vietnam is the current third largest garment-textile exporter in the world after China and India.

As of the end of December 2020, export revenue of the product had declined by 14 per cent to $34 billion marking the first year of reduction after decades of growth of about 10-15 percent. However, in 2021, the sector is projected to enjoy a 9-15 percent rise in export, she stated.