Vietnam garments sector began exporting accessories for the first time in 2013, a milestone in industry development after decades of purchasing input material from overseas. With the availability of domestic garment accessories; apparel makers are finally able to cut costs in the form of pricy material purchases from China, Korea, Bangladesh and other countries.

The Vietnam Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex) noted garment accessories exports contributed US$700 million last year, or 3.5 percent of the total of 20 billion US dollars of all garment, textile and accessories exports in 2013.

For 2014, the garment sector aims for 12 percent export growth. Successful negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement should help reaching this goal.

Director Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen of Garment 10, one of Vietnam’s leading apparel producers with more than 200 million products annually for the domestic and international market, confirms that the proportion of locally made materials in its products has increased over the years from 30–40 percent initially to currently 60 percent, according to the Voice of Vietnam.

The garment and textile industry is not the only one suffering from a lack of domestic supplies – as many as 30 Vietnamese economic and technical sectors are said to rely on imported materials.

Vietnam’s garments export earnings are almost certain to exceed US$20 billion in the very near future after the successful negotiation of free trade agreements like the all-important Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal.

But the availability of locally made materials remains comparatively modest—the cumulative US$10 billion total value is not enough to attract additional investors to material manufacturing.

Raising the proportion of local content in garments will become even more important after Vietnam joins the TPP. Experts believe Vietnam has little choice but to increase the scale of its exports.