Vietnam’s garment sector will focus on new potential markets to achieve an average growth of 6 per cent each year between 2020 and 2025, according to Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) chairman Vu Duc Giang, who recently said the COVID-19 pandemic offered businesses a chance to step up digital transformation and produce masks in large quantities.

Vietnam’s textile and garment industry witnessed a fall in exports in the first four months of this year due to production-related difficulties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, the figure fell by 20 per cent compared to that in March, Truong Van Cam, vice chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), said.

On February 10, 2020, Indonesia and Australia ratified the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The agreement will see duty-free tariffs imposed on two-way trade and exchange of human resources for skills development. Australian companies will now be able to have majority ownership of businesses in specific sectors in Indonesia.