HCM City (VNA) - Thereis a lot of potentials for cooperation between Vietnam and India in the textileand garment sector, a Vietnam-India business meeting heard in Ho Chi Minh City lastweek.

K Srikar Reddy, Indian Consul Generalin the city, said Vietnam is among the top five textile and clothing exportingcountries along with India.

But it has to import a lot ofthe raw materials, while “India’s textile industry has developed a completeproduct supply chain and India is also one of the suppliers of high-qualitymaterials and fabrics at competitive prices in the world.”

Cooperation between the twocountries would help Vietnamese enterprises diversify their raw materialsources and sell high-quality products in the international market, he added.

Nguyen Thi TuyetMai, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association,concurred with him, saying Vietnam has a shortage of cotton, fabric and yarn while India hasan abundant supply of these products, making them perfect partners.

The General Statistics Officeestimates that Vietnam spent 18.5 billion USD to import cotton, un-spun fibre,fabric and auxiliary materials last year and around 15.5 billion USD in thefirst nine months of this year.

Vietnamimported all is cotton needs, with the US and India being the largestsuppliers, besides alsoimporting fabric and yarn from India.

Shailesh Martis, joint directorof the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, said last year India was thesixth largest supplier of textiles to Vietnam, but only accounted for a 1.83 percentmarket share, while China and the Republic of Korea, the largestsuppliers, accounted for 65.4 percent.

India’s export of textiles to Vietnam,especially fabrics, is very low but it is the second biggest supplier of cottonyarn after China, according to the director.

“Vietnam has established itself as one ofthe leading garment makers to the world, not only to major markets like EU andthe US but also to newly emerging large importers China and the Republic ofKorea.”

India is the world’s largest producerof jute and the second largest producer of cotton and silk, and accounts for 22percent the world’s spindle capacity, he said.

“Vietnam needs huge quantitiesof right-priced, quality woven and knitted fabrics to continue its growthmomentum.

“India could be an economicalsource of quality yarns and fabrics to bridge the gap and make Vietnam’sgarments even more competitive.”

He also suggested ways toincrease bilateral trade, including exchange of technicalknow-how, trade-related information and demand – supply trends forimportant product groups on a regular basis.

The event attracted nine Indiancompanies that export cotton, fancy yarns, viscose/blended yarns, fabrics,staple fibre and others, who are also participating in the Vietnam International Textile & Garment IndustryExhibition in HCM City from November 22 to 25, besides local firms.-VNA