Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is well over and businesses are making efforts at recovery so that production can continue and jobs can be retained, other factors have now come into play.
People refer to the European Union (EU) export market as one market that maintains the highest and most difficult quality standards in the world when dealing with imported goods from other countries.
Although the developments of the Covid-19 pandemic remain complicated and unpredictable all over the world, the garment and textile industry still receives good news when orders have become plentiful again, enough for domestic enterprises to produce from now until the end of the year.
To limit the depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution, and the amount of generated waste, many countries around the world have introduced several trade barriers in order to realize a circular economy. Of which, many countries are currently the main export markets of Vietnam. This has forced Vietnamese enterprises to change to adapt and maintain export market share.
Europe is a market of 500 million people, with great potential for development, but Vietnam's annual textile and apparel export turnover to this market is merely over US$8 billion. In just over 10 days, the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will officially take effect, whether textile and apparel enterprises can take advantage of this great opportunity?
In the past three years, The Vietnam Improvement Program, an International Finance Corporation’s initiative to improve resource efficiency in the local apparel, textile, and footwear sector, has supported 82 factories to invest US$37 million in resource efficiency measures, helping them to save $30 million annually by using less water, energy and chemicals.
Continued dependence on raw and auxiliary materials imports will constrain Vietnam textiles and garment industry from taking real advantage of the various Free Trade Agreements signed by the country, industry insiders say.