Talking to a reporter from Customs Magazine this morning, August 2, 2021, Mr. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), assessed that, with many difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, textile and garment exports this year may reach about US $32-33 billion, instead of US $ 39-39.5 billion as the target set at the beginning of the year.

Chairman of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association Vu Duc Giang

How is the current situation of Covid-19 vaccination in textile enterprises, sir?

Vaccination rate of Vietnam's textile and garment industry is very low. Vaccination is assigned by the Government to localities. Each locality assesses which areas are essential to organize the injection first, and it has found unnecessary will not be injected.

In the Ho Chi Minh City area, according to the textile and garment enterprises, in the past week and this week, businesses have been arranged to receive Covid-19 vaccine. However, in the Ho Chi Minh City area, the percentage of textile and garment enterprises is small. In the southern region, the production focus of Vietnam's textile and garment industry, especially the garment industry, is mainly located in the southwestern and southeastern provinces. However, other eighteen southern provinces outside Ho Chi Minh City currently have very low vaccination rates.

In the current context, it is urgent that the Government assess the current situation of industries, including the textile industry in the localities, to have policies to distribute vaccines in different directions. Localities also need to pay attention to injecting workers in factories and industrial zones.

Currently, workers at textile and garment enterprises are leaving the southern provinces and cities quite a lot. In your opinion, how does this pose a challenge for businesses in the future?

Workers are rushing to leave the southern region, specifically leaving Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai... to the southwestern provinces, the Southeast, and the Central South. Workers have returned to their hometowns, the possibility that many workers will not return when localities and businesses are reopened that is a huge challenge.

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, if there is a return, the number of employees will only reach about 60-65%. Vietnam's textile and garment industry faces great challenges in August 2021 and in the third quarter of 2021; No one can predict how the fourth quarter of 2021 will be like.

How do you forecast the results of textile and garment exports this year, will they achieve the goals set out at the beginning of the year in the context of a series of difficulties surrounding them?

In the first six months of this year, textile and garment exports reached nearly US $ nineteen billion. By the end of August 2021, if the pandemic situation in the South can be controlled, businesses can return to work in a normal state according to Directive 15, the export figure for the whole year will reach about US $ 32-33 billion. Meanwhile, the initial export target set for 2021 is $39-39.5 billion. If the pandemic continues to be complicated, I don't know what will happen.

Textile and garment exports for the whole year are forecasted to reach only
about US $32-33 billion. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

In addition to a significant reduction in exports compared to the target, how can difficulties from the Covid-19 pandemic cause adverse impacts on the development of the textile industry in the long term, sir?

For the current situation, if businesses are not vaccinated, it will disrupt the supply, break the production chain of Vietnam's textile and garment industry to the world. The business sector faces the problem of not guaranteeing delivery time commitments for brands.

At present, the proportion of closed factories has reached 30-35%. I think that in the coming time, this series of factories will even have to close permanently, not just for a while, especially small and medium enterprises. That's because businesses don't have enough potential to pay for problems for "three-on-the-spot" work, pay support for employees to return to work, etc. This is a huge challenge in stabilizing the model of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises.

In the long term, if by the end of 2021, textile and garment exports only reach about US $ 32-33 billion, Vietnam's textile and garment will no longer be able to keep customers in Vietnam. Brands continue to find the Vietnamese market unstable, they will move out.

Thank you Sir!