HCM City(VNA) – Boosting cooperation between Vietnam and India in the garment andtextile sector will be one of the priorities in efforts to raise bilateral tradevalue to 15 billion USD by 2020, said Parvathaneni Harish, Indian Ambassador toVietnam.

Speaking at an eventto introduce the exhibition Source India 2018 in Ho Chi Minh City on July 17,the Ambassador held that garment-textiles is one of the traditional industries thatplay an important role in socio-economic development of both Vietnam and India.

It is also theindustry the Government of Vietnam and India have prioritised to developing andcooperating with an aim of enhancing bilateral trade and building a supply chainfor the sector in the future, he added.

Currently, India ownsa strong fibre and yarn production industry that is able to produce almost all kindsof fabric and supporting materials available in the market, making is one ofthe three largest textile products providers in the world.

Meanwhile, Vietnam isin the top five garment exporters in the world with export turnover reaching 31billion USD in 2017. However, Vietnam has had to import a large volume ofmaterials for the sector, with 19 billion USD in import value in 2017, he noted.Vietnam is a promising market for Indian firms, he affirmed.

Anil Rajvanshi,Chairman of the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council of India,said that India is strong in producing and exporting textile products fromsynthetic yarn, a material fabric that is being used widely in the worldgarment industry with high expansion prospects in the future.

He asserted thatalthough India and Vietnam can supplement each other in the supply chain of thegarment sector, the two-way trade in the area remains modest. In 2017, India’s garmentexports to Vietnam reached 429 million USD, up 44 percent over 2016, whileVietnam shipped only 178 million USD worth of garment products to India.

In order to promote cooperationand improve trade in the sector, India has set a target of exporting 1 billionUSD in materials to Vietnam in the coming time, he revealed, while calling for Vietnamesefirms’ active engagement in trade promotion and business exchange activities toset up closer and more effective partnership.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai,Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, saidthat despite being one of the five largest apparel exporters in the world, Vietnamis also one of the countries that import the highest amount of garment andtextile materials in the world.

Vietnam’s garment andtextile export is potential for growth with estimated revenue of 34 billion USDin 2018. Therefore, demands for materials and equipment for the sector willalso rise considerably, she said.

Mai lauded the qualityand diversity of India’s material fabric as well as textile equipment andtechnology.

She held that the promotionof cooperation in the garment and textile sector between Vietnam and India willpave the way for enterprises of both sides to optimise their strengths andadvantages. Vietnam will benefit from more materials, technology and equipmentfor production, while India can expand its market, stated Mai.

Vietnamese businessesproposed that the governments of the two countries consider negotiations on andthe signing of a bilateral free trade agreement to lay foundation for thereduction of tariff for goods of each other.-VNA