What changed
Vietnam’s ambassador to China, Pham Thanh Binh, called for a broader textile partnership between the two countries at the 2026 World Fabric Merchants Conference in Keqiao, Zhejiang, on November 7. He proposed moving beyond fabric trade into joint research, investment, production and training, with cooperation on digitalisation, supply-chain management, new materials, energy saving, wastewater treatment and recycling.
Why it matters
The pitch rests on a practical division of strengths: Vietnam has strong garment manufacturing, while China has a complete textile supply chain. That makes Keqiao’s China Textile City more than a marketplace in this proposed model. It could become a meeting point for factories, researchers and investors working across the full path from material to finished clothing.
The scale is significant. China Textile City handles about one quarter of global fabric transactions each year. Binh said Vietnam wants its relationship with Keqiao to expand from buying and selling fabric into shared production capabilities, technical development and workforce training.
That would make environmental work part of the industrial partnership, not a side project. Energy use, wastewater treatment and raw-material recovery are among the areas identified for cooperation. The commercial opportunity, in other words, comes with a requirement to make production cleaner and more efficient.
Binh’s return to Keqiao after five years also gave the proposal a visible backdrop: he said the local industry had advanced in technology, innovation and green development. The outlook remains a proposal, with no investment amounts, agreements or project timelines reported. Its importance will depend on whether companies turn the suggested cooperation into actual projects.
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