HÀ NỘI – The central Thừa Thiên-Huế Province plans to spend more than VNĐ6.6 trillion (US$295 million) on transforming itself into a textile and garment hub in the country’s central region.

This is the main objective of the province’s textile and garment planning for the 2016-2020 period.

Under the plan, the province will focus on developing the domestic market and expanding export markets, with exports being a driving force for the sector’s development; boosting research, product design, brand-building and promotion; and developing a professional fashion industry to change the rural labour structure.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyễn Văn Cao said in order to develop the sector sustainably and ensure enough supply of materials for production, the province had co-operated with the Centre’s co-ordinating board of key economic zones to build a centre for supplying apparel materials.

The centre would cover 400ha in the Phong Điền Industrial Zone, he said.

Highly appreciative of the project, many textile and garment companies located in the zone had expressed their willingness to expand their factories, Cao said.

In addition, to create a closed production chain, the province is also conducting research of modern wastewater treatment systems to protect the environment.

Due to dependence on materials supplied by foreign partners, local textiles and garment companies had lost their competitiveness and the sector’s efficiency had also been affected, Cao said.

That’s why in the near future, companies would be urged to transfer their production from a processing model to ODM (original design manufacturing) or OMB (original brand manufacturing) model, he said.

The province is now home to six industrial zones, with 50 textiles and garment enterprises. – VNS