Vietnam to focus on building link with India to reduce dependence on China

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will arrive at Bodh Gaya on October 28 and then a day later travel to Delhi for formal, substantive meetings. Vietnamese PM’s visit will focus on building more bridges with India, so as to sources materials and reduce its dependence on China. The sector specifically that Hanoi is looking at India is textiles.

Vietnam imports most of its raw materials from China, especially for its emerging garment sector. In fact 50 percent of the raw yarn and fabrics are imported from Chinese firms.

With textiles now seen as an important export industry for Hanoi, it wants to reduce this Chinese leverage which could impact its economy.
They are looking to import more polyester fabrics and yarns from India. Even though the timelines given by Chinese firms are shorter, they are looking at India to diversify for obvious reasons, said sources.

Incidentally, Vietnam’s trade with China was around $50 bn in 2013, while with India it was about $8 bn. At the same time, growth in trade volume with India has been sharp – 30 percent over last year.

The visit also comes after India for the first time in a bilateral document with US talked about the South China sea dispute and the rule of law for a peaceful region, which led to a sharp retort from Beijing that no third-parties had any role.