VIETNAM: Exports Up 4.97 Per Cent In First Nine Months

Vietnam's textile and garment exports rose 4.97 per cent year-on-year to $1,372m in the first nine months of this year. The national Vietnam Textile and Garment Corporation contributed $365m, 17.3 per cent more than last year. The corporation met in Ho Chi Minh City last week to discuss its US export strategy for 2000-2010. Initial steps taken to boost exports to the US included setting up liaison offices in New York and organising tours of the US market and meetings among Vietnamese business people and US exporters in Vietnam and the US. Newly approved production and to waste water treatment projects, using ODA sources from China, Japan, Spain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, are also under way. The corporation said it would establish more joint ventures with foreign investors and exporters, all aimed at increasing textile and garment exports to the United States.