h3 { margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; }h3.western { font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; }h3.cjk { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 12pt; }h3.ctl { font-family: "DejaVu Sans"; font-size: 12pt; }p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; A mission of 20 Denmark’s apparel firms on March 28 started a visit to Vietnam in order to tighten garment and textile cooperation with the Southeast Asian country. With experience in design and technology, Danish apparel enterprises are ready to help Vietnamese partners to raise product quality and competitiveness, said Danish Ambassador John Nielsen at the workshop “Vietnam-Denmark garment and textile cooperation” in Hanoi. Nielsen expressed his belief that the workshop would be the first step for long-term cooperation for the garment and textile sectors of the two countries. Despite Vietnam being in the world’s top five garment and textile exporters with a growth rate of 23% a year, Vietnamese enterprises still has to cope with many difficulties such as a large quantity of imported materials and tough competition from other nations such as China, India and Bangladesh. Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises needed to pay attention to factors such as design, taxation and working conditions, Nielsen shared. Addressing the workshop, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh affirmed that Vietnam wished that Danish enterprises would invest in the nation’s garment and textile sector to help improve product quality and effectiveness of Vietnamese exports. Partnerships with Danish companies may serve as a gateway to other European markets for Vietnamese companies, Tuan Anh stressed, adding that factors such as low labor cost, high domestic demand and a low level of technology of Vietnamese enterprises provides a favorable ground for a mutually beneficial cooperation and good possibilities for investing in the sector. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the garment and textile sector earned $64.8 million from exports to Demark in 2010, making up 33.2% of the country’s total export to the market and an increase of 60.5% from the previous year. (vovnews.vn Mar 28, Quan doi nhan dan – People’s Army Mar 28)
