Vietnam, India promote garments, textiles trade exchange

HANOI, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The "Vietnam-India trade exchange in garments and textile industry" seminar was held in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on Wednesday.

According to Vietnam News Agency, the seminar was held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)'s HCMC Bureau, and the Indian Textile Export Promotion Council (Texprocil).

According to VCCI, Vietnam-India two-way trade turnover has constantly increased in recent years, which reached more than 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, of which Vietnam's export value to India reached 991.63 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 136.34 percent. India is listed among Vietnam's top 20 exporters and top 10 importers.

Addressing the seminar, Texprocil President Amit Ruparelia said that India has supplied textile materials to Vietnam for many years. In 2010, Vietnam spent 55 million U.S. dollars for apparel imports from India, up 53 percent against the previous year.

However, that has not yet tapped the two countries' potentials. At this seminar, the Indian businesses would introduce to their Vietnamese partners-importers their products, hoping to promote trade cooperation between the two countries in general, and the two textile sectors in particular, Ruparelia said.

Vietnam is one among the world's top ten textile exporters. In the first six months of 2011, the country earned 6.16 billion U.S. dollars from textile exports, up 30 percent year-on-year, which is expected to reach about 13.5 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the year.

Vietnamese textile sector has a high demand on raw materials imports, up to 80 percent, with annual cotton imports worth almost 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, VCCI reported.