HANOI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reaped nearly 12.1 billion U.S. dollars from exporting garments and textiles in the first five months of this year, posting a year-on-year rise of 10.3 percent, according to its Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday.
Specifically, the turnovers of Vietnamese garments and textiles exported to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) climbed up 31.6 percent, to South Korea up 16.3 percent, to the United States up 9.8 percent, and to Japan up 6.5 percent.
In May alone, the garment and textile export turnovers stood at 2.6 billion U.S. dollars, gaining a year-on-year increase of 10.8 percent.
Total export turnovers of the local garment and textile industry may reach 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, forecast the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association.
Vietnam, among the world's five biggest exporters and producers of garments and textiles, made garment and textile export turnovers of over 30.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 16.6 percent from 2017.
However, Vietnam had to spend more than 12.9 billion U.S. dollars importing cloth last year, up 13.5 percent, the association said, noting that most of local cloth has yet to satisfy quality requirements of the country's key garment export markets.
