HANOI, Vietnam (Viet Nam News) -- Vietnam expects the growth of textile and garment exports to South Korea to continue until the end of the year after strong results in the first seven months of 2018, according to the General Department of Customs.

Up until July, Vietnam showed an on-year increase of 24.88 percent in textile and garment export value to $1.5 billion to South Korea, marking a strong breakthrough in those products to the market.

In July alone, the export value of those products to the Northern Asian market reached $270.7 million, a rise of 24.18 percent compared to June and 24.06 percent compared with July 2017.

China and Vietnam were the two-largest garment suppliers to the South Korean market, accounting for 34.46 percent and 32.67 percent, respectively.

Vietnam’s garment exports to the market have accelerated rapidly, reducing the gap between the market shares of China and Vietnam in the South Korean garment market at 40.18 percent and 29.52 percent, respectively, three years ago.

According to Vietnam’s General Department of Customs, South Korea has become the fourth-largest export market of Vietnam, reaching $2.7 billion in 2017.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the strong growth in exports to South Korea was mainly due to the high competitiveness of Vietnam’s garments and higher spending of consumers in this market.

In addition, the Vietnam-South Korea free trade agreement encouraged Vietnam’s textile and garment products to enter the South Korean market, the ministry said. According to the FTA, 24 products of Vietnam enjoy lower taxes compared to other countries in the ASEAN region.

By the end of the year, Vietnam’s textile and garment exports to South Korea are expected to increase by 20 percent on-year. The textile and garment export value is estimated to rise 22 percent on-year to $3.2 billion for the entire year, reported vneconomy.vn.

Vietnam is considered to have many advantages in supplying textile and garment products to South Korea. It is likely to become the largest garment supplier to the market.

The General Department of Customs said that in the first seven months of this year, Vietnam gained $10.2 billion won from the total export value to South Korea, an on-year increase of 32.13 percent.

Of the amount, three categories -- phones and components, textile and garment, and computers and electronic products -- achieved export value of over $1 billion each, accounting for over 40 percent of Vietnam’s total export value of goods to the South Korean market. (ANN)