Garment makers hit record sales

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam earned around 930 million USD from garment exports in July, bringing exports in the first seven months of the year to a record 5.1 billion USD, up 20.5 percent on the same period last year.

Le Quoc An, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, (Vitas), said: "This point in time [from July to September] is regarded as"the harvest time' for the apparel sector".

"On the back of impressive figures in July, in addition to the positive outlook for the next two months, it is possible for the industry to reap 9.5 USD billion in export revenue by the end of the year, as set earlier." However, he said the industry would have to cope with a number of difficulties, such as high inflation, high interest rates on commercialloans, strikes and resignations, among other factors.

In addition, he said the sector was overly dependent on major markets such as the US (holding 55 percent market share), the EU (17 percent) and Japan (8 percent), and therefore it wasvulnerable to unexpected marketvolatility.

To offset the risk, industry experts recommend that exporters look toother markets such as the Middle East and South Africa .

Vitas also advised garment makers not to ignore regional markets such as the Republic of Korea , Singapore and Taiwan.-