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Textile and garment companies find nowhere to shelter
Local authorities tend to say “no” not only to textile projects because of the fear for environmental pollution, but to garment projects as well, because garment factories do not help develop local economies.
The Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) has complained that it has been facing big difficulties in implementing projects because local authorities now tend to restrict the licensing to textile and garment companies.
Tran Quoc Van, Deputy Director of the Hung Yen provincial Planning and Investment Department, said on Dau tu that Hung Yen has a textile and garment industrial zone already, and that the provincial authorities have been creating the best conditions to facilitate the projects in the zone. However, in the time to come, the provincial authorities would have to consider the projects outside the industrial zone carefully before licensing. In general, the province would restrict textile and garment projects.
Local authorities, after a long time of trying to attract as many investment projects as possible, have changed their mind, now focusing on improving the investment quality instead of running after the quantity. They now try to attract high technology projects which allows to create high added values and help develop local economies. Meanwhile, textile and garment projects do not create high added values, while they may pollute the environment.
The local authorities, when programming their industrial production development, nearly do not reserve the land fund for textile and dyeing industries. Only some provinces still accept textile and garment projects, but they set up very strict requirements on investors, especially the ones on waste water treatment. Meanwhile, they do not offer any support to the enterprises in the waste water treatment.
The Thanh Hoa provincial party committee secretary Mai Van Ninh has said that the province supports the textile and garment industry, but in the future, the province would focus on attracting the projects in the business fields which can create higher added values.
Not only in the northern provinces of Hung Yen and Thanh Hoa, garment and textile project investors are also facing difficulties in the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces.
The less enthusiasm of local authorities towards textile and garment projects has made it difficult for the textile and garment industry to implement the plan on investment expansion. Under the plan, Vietnam would continue expand the investment scale on the textile and garment industry by 2020 with the total investment capital for the period reaching 43 trillion dong. Currently, textiles and garments are still the key export products of Vietnam.
By the end of 2011, the textile and garment industry had generated 2 million jobs. With the average pay of 3 million dong a month and 40 million dong a year, the total pay fund for the 2 million workers is 4 billion dollars, a big volume.
Meanwhile, just one hectare is enough to build a factory that creates 1000 jobs. With the income of 40 million dong per worker per annum, the total income on the one hectare of land is 40 billion dong.
Vu Duc Giang, Chair of Vinatex, said Vietnam’s textile and garment industry still can develop for 20-30 more years. Prior to 2003, Vietnam had not been known in the world as a garment producer. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s garment export turnover is now in the top 5 in the world.
Hong Sun, Secretary of the South Korean Business Association said on Dau tu that Vietnam still needs to attract the projects on making garment, footwear and bags. Even if Vietnam tries to attract high technology projects, it still needs more time to train skilful workers for the high technology industries.
Dan Viet newspaper has reported that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is calling for foreign investment in the textile and garment industry, in an effort to fulfill the industry development strategy. The newspaper has quoted its source as saying that while the investment from other countries into the garment sector has decreased, more South Korean projects in the field have still been set up in Vietnam.
vietnamnet
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