Many textile and garment factories have had to halt operations due to COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)“Ithink that a number of these factories will even have to close for a long time,especially small and medium enterprises,” Vitas Chairman Vu Duc Giang said atan online meeting on August 2.
Businesses,he said, do not have enough funds to pay for three-on-site working arrangementsto support employees to return to work. This is a huge challenge to stabilisingVietnamese textile and garment enterprises.
Inaddition, the vaccination rate of Vietnam's textile and garment industry wasstill very low, he went on.
Thevaccination rate was particularly low in key production areas in thesouthwestern and southeastern provinces.
Vitaswas one of four associations that sent an official dispatch to the PrimeMinister, proposing speeding up vaccinations or supporting businesses to buyvaccines to give to workers of export industries.
Thetotal export turnover of the provinces in the central and southern regions accounted for 62percent of the total export turnover of the industry.
Giangnotes that this month would be a particularly difficult period, especially forsouthern businesses due to social distancing requirements.
Many garment and textile companies in southern provinces and cities, which have been imposing social distancing measures under the Prime Minister's Directive 16, are facing a range of difficulties.
Vitasdata showed that the export value of the textile and garment industry reached 18.7billion USD in the first six months of the year, while the target for the wholeyear is 39 billion USD.
"Inthe last five months of the year, businesses could only start exporting againif the pandemic situation is completely under control. In the most optimisticscenario, we can only achieve about 32-33 billion USD," he said.
Dueto the inability to ensure the production situation as planned, the disruptionof the supply chain had also put huge pressure on many textile and garmententerprises.
Withthe pressure of a seasonal manufacturing industry in which timeliness isimperative, failing to deliver on time would cause customers to cancel orderswhich would impact the industry in the medium term.
Oneconcern is the number of workers leaving Ho Chi Minh City in a hurry to return to theirhometowns. The Vitas representative said that their ability to return when thelocalities open again is also a huge challenge. This could foreshadow a veryserious labour shortage in the immediate future./.
VNA
