Vietnam sews up more textile deals

In July, southern Tra Vinh Provincial People’s Committee granted an investment licence to South Korea-based Grace Vina Company Limited to build a garment export plant in the province’s Cau Ngang district valued at $5 million. The project covers 3.4 hectares and will hit an annual production capacity of  26.9 million women’s shirts and trousers.

According to company’s director Hur Dae Seon, more South Korean firms have flocked to Vietnam since labour costs in their country were escalating.

“Though Vietnamese workers are not as abundant as previously and there is a fierce competition among labour intensive production sectors, the production cost in Vietnam still remains competitive and that is why Grace Vina decided on setting up a production plant in Tra Vinh,” he said.

In May, Netherlands-based apparel manufacturer Vert Company got the nod from northern Bac Giang People’s Committee to build a garment plant over 4ha in Viet Lap commune.

The $8 million project encompasses two garment factories with an annual capacity of 1.9 million items which are slated to come online in 2012.

Meanwhile, China’s Pacific and Crystal groups won an investment licence for its $180 million textile and garment project in northern Hai Duong province in April 2011.

The project covers 70ha in Nguyen Giap industrial cluster in the province’s Tu Ky district. The Pacific and Crystal joint venture is set to build there a $120 million textile and $60 million garment production facilities. Once in place, these plants would generate revenue of $500 million per year and provide employment to 10,000 local labourers.

Vietnam’s textile and garment sector was home to around 650 foreign-invested and joint venture enterprises as of December 31, 2010 with most of them coming from Taiwan and South Korea, according to Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) statistics.

Despite raking in $10.2 billion in textile and garment export value in 2010 and over $6.1 billion in 2011’s first half (up 30 per cent on-year), wooing foreign investors into important fields like textile and spinning continues to be a big challenge for Vietnam, Vitas said.