Maintaining growth
According to Mr. Truong Van Cam, Vice President of Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, in 2025, if total export turnover of entire industry, including yarn and accessories, is considered, export scale reached nearly 14.6 billion USD, equivalent to a growth rate of about 6% compared to the previous year. This result was achieved in context of many difficulties in international market.
The United States currently accounts for about 40% of the export turnover of the Vietnamese textile and garment industry. Facing risk of high tariffs, many businesses experienced a period of anxiety. However, according to Mr. Truong Van Cam, it was this calmness and proactive adaptation that helped the industry not only maintains its market share but also seize opportunities in 2025.
“Businesses have remained calm and confident, strengthening cooperation and coordination with each other and with banks, taking advantage of market opportunities. At the same time, management agencies within Ministry of Industry and Trade have been closely monitoring the situation month by month”, Mr. Truong Van Cam shared.
In reality, despite fierce competition, textile and garment export to the US market in 2025 are still expected to reach approximately $18.6 billion, an increase of over 11%. Notably, when compared to major competitors such as China, Bangladesh or Mexico, which also face trade defense tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, advantage of Vietnamese businesses lies in their ability to closely coordinate with customers and receive timely support from the government.
Besides export growth, textile and garment industry also recorded a trade surplus of approximately US$20.3 billion in 2025, thereby making a significant contribution to trade balance and GDP growth. This is considered an important foundation for the industry to maintain its position in overall export picture of the country.
However, according to representatives of Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, the results achieved in 2025 do not mask the reality that room for extensive growth is gradually narrowing, while competitive pressure from rivals continues to increase. This necessitates a review of the industry's development strategy in the coming period.
From increasing scale to improving quality - inevitable direction for textile and garment industry
Based on global trade practices, Mr. Truong Van Cam believes that expectation of export growth at 15-16% as a general target is very challenging for textile and garment industry. The reason is that global trade is currently only growing by about 2-5%, while growth of global textile and garment industry is only at 2-3%. In this context, many countries that directly compete with Vietnam are seeking ways to strongly support their textile and garment industries, especially those economies heavily dependent on this sector.
Therefore, according to Vice President of Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, continuing to pursue quantitative growth is no longer a sustainable path. Vietnamese textile and garment industry aims to achieve a turnover of approximately US$49-49.5 billion by 2026, equivalent to an increase of about 8%, but the focus is not on scale, but on quality of growth.
“We have decided not to expand significantly in scale; we will continue to grow in quantity, but our main goal is to improve added value, product quality, service quality, and the overall quality of Vietnamese textiles and garments,” Mr. Truong Van Cam emphasized.
One of highlights mentioned by Mr. Cam is localization rate of the industry. Although FDI sector accounts for about 60%, domestic enterprises still play a crucial role in the supply chain. For a processing industry like textiles and garments, achieving a localization rate of around 40% is considered a remarkable achievement, especially when compared to many other countries in the region that still heavily rely on imported raw materials and components.
In future, textile and garment industry will continue to focus on improving enterprise capacity, developing domestic sources of raw materials and components, strengthening supply chain linkages and meeting increasingly high demands for quality, service and sustainability of the international market. In context of increasingly fierce global competition, Vietnam's textile and garment industry cannot achieve breakthroughs simply by expanding its scale. According to representatives of Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, a more feasible path is to shift towards in-depth growth, focusing on quality, added value and internal capacity of businesses as pillars, thereby maintaining its role as one of key export sectors of the economy.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn