The Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, or Vinatex, is expected to buy a stake of some 20% in the apparel materials center to help it restore business, said the chairman of Vinatex.

Le Quoc An said that the national garment group was in negotiations with Lien Anh Company Ltd. as the project owner to buy a stake of 20% or more.

Once becoming a stakeholder in the center, Vinatex will help improve the center’s operation by bringing more traders to the center, especially Vinatex’s member companies, An told the Daily on Monday.

Vinatex currently oversees some 100 members including some large garment and textile companies such as Hanoi Textile and Garment, Phong Phu, Viet Tien Garment, Viet Thang Textile, Dong Phuong Knitting, Phu Bai Fiber and Hue Garment and Textile to name but a few.

The move by Vinatex is applauded by Lien Anh Co., whose deputy director Truong Thi Thuy Lien told the Daily on Monday that her company was willing to sell a stake to Vinatex so as to reopen the garment and textile materials center as soon as possible. She revealed the 20% stake to be valued at some US$2 million. “We are quickly taking all necessary steps so as to arrive at an agreement soon, and expect that the center will be reopened in the middle of next year,” she said.

Lien Anh Company opened the center in the middle of May, only to close it down a week later because the center attracted very few traders.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Bui Xuan Khu last week had instructed Vinatex and other related agencies to coordinate with Lien Anh Company to seek better solutions for reopening the 16-hectare materials center located some 25 kilometers from HCMC.

The deputy minister said at a seminar in Binh Duong last Thursday that in the long term, Vietnam should have more footwear and garment materials centers to support the development of the garment and textile industry.

He stressed that while Vinatex had initially been assigned to build two material centers in Hanoi and HCMC to help facilitate material transactions and cut the cost of materials imports of the enterprises, the national garment group had yet to fulfill its mandate.