Vietnam exports $9.38bn garment in H1

 Vietnam made over 9.38 billion U.S. dollars from garment exports in the first half of 2014, up 19.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 13.2 percent of the national total export revenue during the period.
According to the latest statistics on the website of the General Department of Vietnam Customs on Tuesday, in June alone, Vietnam pocketed over 1.89 billion U.S. dollars, up 22.4 percent against the previous month, posting the first time since January 2014 when garment replaced phone and accessories to top Vietnam's export items in terms of revenue.
The United States was the largest market of Vietnam's garment in six-month period with import revenue of 4.57 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 48.7 percent of Vietnam's total market shares for garment, said the department.
The European Union followed the United States with a turnover of 1.49 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.9 percent of Vietnam's total market shares, said Vietnam Customs.
In the past years, garment has contributed some 15 percent to Vietnam's export revenue annually, bringing Vietnam to top five among 153 garment exporting countries and regions worldwide in terms of revenue.
However, Vietnamese garment is facing several internal problems such as being too much dependent on imported fabrics, focusing on Cut, Measure and Thread (CMT) jobs, which creates low wages for local workers, Bao Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade News), an online newspaper under Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade said recently.
In order to lay stable foundation for the development of the sector, Bao Cong Thuong quoted local experts as saying that Vietnam's garment exporters should strengthen capacity of designing, and marketing to transfer from CMT method to Free On Board, Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) or Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM) methods, in which profit in each product will be increased as well as seek for more material sources.
In addition, Vietnamese garment enterprises should boost exports of traditional garment, textile items to diversify products, enhance competition of Vietnamese products, and promote "made in Vietnam" brand, said experts.