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The textile and garment industry’s export revenue reached US$9.1 billion last year, making it the largest foreign currency earner in the country, said Le Quoc An, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas).

The textile and garment industry is the country’s only sector whose export revenue has not declined compared to 2008 in the context of global economic recession, Mr An said.

He said despite export declines in some traditional markets in 2009, exports to new markets have increased significantly as companies had diversified markets.

Exports to traditional markets such as the US and EU reduced by 5 percent and 3.5 percent respectively.

However, exports to Japan increased by 15 percent, the Republic of Korea by 67 percent, India by 60 percent and ASEAN by 29 percent.

An said garment and textile companies had increasingly used local materials in their products with local content rising to 44 percent lat year compared to 38 percent in 2008.

Cloth imports last year decreased by 6.9 percent against 2008. Textile fibre and cotton imports also went down by 0.3 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively.

The garment and textile sector imported about $5 billion of materials last year.

The government plans to achieve $10.5 billion in export revenue this year.

“We believe the industry will meet the target as many garment and textile companies now have export orders until the end of the second quarter,” An said.

He said to meet the target, the industry will focus on investing in reorganizing production, applying advanced technology, retaining traditional customers and finding new ones.

(VOV)