Cultivating a sustainable and greener production chain and optimising logistics activities to better ensure supply chains are needed to help Vietnam’s garment and textile industry earn $100 bn in export turnover by 2030 and make 30 brands enter the global market, industry experts say. Delivery delays meant businesses may have to pay compensation to buyers, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai told a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City recently.
Skyrocketing logistics costs threatened to affect the country’s economic competitiveness, particularly its textile and garment industry, she said, citing an example of a small and medium-sized textile and garment enterprise that had to order an entire A330 aircraft, equivalent to one container, to promptly deliver its order to Japan.
Moreover, the overlap and inadequacy in some regulations of the ministries and sectors and the inconsistent implementation of government directives in the localities had hindered logistics activities and made logistics costs higher, Mai said.
If the logistics issue was not solved efficiently or the cost of logistics services did not decrease, Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises would not benefit from the new-generation free trade agreements, she noted.
VITAS had petitioned the government to soon issue a strategy on developing Vietnam’s textile and garment industry to 2030, with a vision to 2035 so that businesses could understand clearly the support roadmap from the state, Mai said, adding that her association also suggested developing shipping lines for shipments to Europe and the United States, making it less reliant on international shipping lines.
For local textile and garment enterprises, Mai recommended that they should always review their capabilities and needs in order to draw up contingency plans while applying lean management and considering outsourcing services to optimise logistics operations and costs, according to Vientmaese media reports.
