VIETNAM: Exporters To US Told To Start Small

Garment makers aiming to find a niche in the lucrative US market should start small and work towards more profitable contracts later, American Technology president Dinh Duc Huu said at a seminar this week.Huu also said that domestic manufacturers were failing to capitalise on low labour costs and risked losing ground to Taiwanese and Chinese rivals. Hefty spending on marketing, including on the Internet, was necessary to gain customers in America and elsewhere, he added.Dinh Duc Huu said that his company was committed to helping Vietnamese manufacturers establish strong business links with the US. American Technology had installed a server in California that could host up to 100,000 websites, and was willing to help Vietnamese manufacturers promote themselves via the Internet.Le Van Dao, deputy head of the Trade Ministry's import-export division, told the seminar that small and medium textile and garment enterprises should continue to receive financial assistance from the State in their efforts to raise their competitiveness and access the American market.He said he hoped the US-Vietnam trade pact would be ratified soon to lower the import duty on Vietnamese garments and make them more competitive in America.Vietnam's revenue from garment exports to the US last year is reported at $37m.