Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Truong Van Cam said domestic businesses have received full orders for the third quarter of this year and are negotiating to secure long-term contracts through 2019.

Many garment-textile firms in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City revealed that they have received orders until the end of this year, even for the first months of 2019.

“Though the prices are likely to decline, the number of orders has been surging this year, especially with large-scale enterprises”, Cam said.

According to Chairman of the HCM City Association of Garment, Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Pham Xuan Hong, there are numerous prospects for the garment-textile sector this year thanks to a certain number of orders.

However, there remain challenges facing local businesses ahead, including fiercer competition from regional countries such as China, Myanmar and Cambodia, he noted.

To realise the export goal, General Director of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) Le Tien Truong said creating high-quality products with reasonable prices and ensuring on time delivery are the most fundamental solutions of the sector.

Vietnam’s garment-textile sector should not receive cheap orders instead of reasonable prices that require high skills and techniques, he said.

The solution to this matter is making appropriate investment in technologies to increase labour productivity not only through the skills of workers but also the production system, management and computerization in administration and automation in each stage, he recommended.

Truong unveiled that most of importers make big orders in Vietnam, and they have only shifted small orders to other countries like Myanmar and Cambodia, as Vietnamese firms are spending big on new technologies to increase productivity and competitiveness.

Furthermore, free trade agreements have helped Vietnam diversify its export markets and address the shortage of materials, he said.

From importing most of raw materials for production, the garment-textile industry now exports more than 3 billion USD worth of yarn, nearly 1 billion USD worth of fabric, and 400 million USD worth of garment accessories each year, Truong said.

Particularly, the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) has changed the mindset of businesses in regards to technology investment, the general director added.

Garment-textile companies have paid more attention to developing human resources and using technology to create quality products by selecting high value production segments such as Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) and Own Brand Manufacturing (OBM).

In 2017, the garment-textile sector raked in 31.2 billion USD from exports, a year-on-year rise of 10.23 percent.

In the year, Vietnam’s garment-textile exports to major markets like the US, the EU, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Russia increased by 7.2 percent, 9.23 percent, 6.1 percent, 11.8 percent and 56 percent, respectively.