Hanoi (VNS/VNA) — The garment and textile sector was forecastto suffer the most from goods origin regulations under the Comprehensiveand Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), said Bui KimThuy, the country representative for Vietnam at the US-ASEAN BusinessCouncil.

The CPTPP, which took effect in Vietnam earlier this week, is expected tobring huge opportunities and also challenges to Vietnam. However, materials forthe garment and textile sector may still prove a headache.

“Everyone said with the CPTPP, the textile and garment industry would benefitthe most, but if there is no appropriate support, opportunities could turn intochallenges,” said Truong Van Cam, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Textile andApparel Association.

The country’s garment and textile sector claimed second position in theworld in terms of export turnover with 36.1 billion USD in 2018. However,Vietnam had to import around 80 percent of its materials for production. Theheavy demand on imported material had become a serious problem for the industry,Cam said.

Currently, Vietnam has to import up to 99 percent of cotton, 70 percent offibre and 80 percent of fabric from foreign countries. The biggest shortcoming,according to Cam, is that only 10 percent of fabric is imported from Japan andcountries that are part of the CPTPP.

The biggest bottleneck is that Vietnam has been unable to produce fabricsfor export.

Nguyen Son, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Cotton and Spinning Association,said in order to build supply chains for the textile and garment industries, theRepublic of Korea and China had developed effective industrial park models.

Vietnam is in the top three biggest exporters of garments and textiles inthe world following China and India. The country has an abundant labour forceand golden population period. The sector has attracted 17.5 billion USD inforeign direct investment so far.

Cam said to take advantage of the opportunities from the CPTPP, Vietnamesefirms should gain a deeper understanding of the sector, their advantages andmarkets in the CPTPP.

In order to solve the bottleneck, strong enterprises must work togetherwith local authorities. The Government needs to develop policies for the next10 to 15 years to take advantage of this agreement.-VNS/VNA