HANOI: The textile and garment industry has long faced an imbalance between production stages.

The two stages at the beginning and end of the chain, yarn and sewing, have a very large scale of development, while weaving and dyeing have remained industry bottlenecks for years.

Infrastructure for weaving, dyeing and fabric production is still limited, and there is no planning for development and centralised wastewater treatment, said Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, deputy general-secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association.

Some local governments refuse textile and dyeing projects, saying that the textile and dyeing industry causes pollution, although investors say they will use modern processing technology that will not have a negative impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, to enjoy preferential tariffs from new free-trade agreements (FTAs), businesses must meet the rules of origin “from the yarn on” or “from the fabric onwards”.

“To solve the problem of limited raw-material supply, we need to take advantage of the benefits of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to attract foreign investment in the raw material supply chain,” Mai told the online news site Kinh Doanh Business.

Experts believe that if the bottleneck in the dyeing process can be resolved, it would help raise Vietnam’s position in the global textile and garment supply chain, enabling it to take full advantage of FTA tariff preferences.

The issues extend beyond just the issue of textile dyeing as investments to address the supply shortages in the textile and garment industry are still lacking.

Domestic enterprises in the textile and garment industry still lack connection and fail to fully complete the supply chain within the country. As a result, the supply of raw materials is heavily reliant on imports at various stages of the production process.

Up to 90% of textile and garment raw materials in Ho Chi Minh City were dependent on imports (mainly from China), while only 10% was local, said Pham Xuan Hong, chairman of the HCM City Textile and Garment-Embroidery Association.

In general, shifting investment into the textile and garment raw materials sector requires more effort from domestic enterprises, rather than relying solely on foreign direct investment, said Hong.

To reach the goal, the government has approved one decisive solution needed is to increase investment in the industry’s supply shortages under the “Strategy for developing Vietnamese Textile, Garment and Footwear Industry by 2030”.

“We must consider investing to address the supply shortages in the textile and garment industry as an urgent need,” noted Hong.

“This requires policy support and capital for domestic enterprises to invest in textile and garment supporting industries.”

 - ANN