Vietnamese textile - garment firms face lack of orders, labor
Vietnamese textile - garment firms face lack of orders, labor
A number of textile-garment businesses in Vietnam have encountered a decline in orders as well as a shortfall of workers, said Pham Thi Xuan Trang, chairwoman of the Textile and Apparel Association of southern Binh Duong Province on Thursday.
When textile-garment companies earlier received abundant orders for export, their employees could opt to work overtime and earned monthly incomes ranging between VND12 million (US$494.14) and VND13 million ($535.05), enabling them to make both ends meet, Trang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper the same day at the ongoing ITCPE Vietnam Texprint 2023, taking place in Binh Duong from Thursday to Saturday this week.
At present, most businesses in the field have received a falling number of orders, resulting in pay and working hour cuts facing2 workers.
Nguyen Thai Hung, vice-chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said the lack of orders will likely prevent the country’s textile-garment sector from fulfilling its outbound sales target for 2023.
In the January-August period this year, the sector booked an estimated $26.2 billion in export revenue, dipping over 16 percent year on year. Its whole-year revenue could be lower than expected, at $39.5-40 billion.
The textile-garment sector still remained one of the most important economic sectors in the country, with its export revenue reaching $44 billion last year.
It is also the most labor-intensive sector with around 7,000 companies employing nearly three million people.
Regarding the ITCPE Vietnam Texprint 2023, it features about 200 booths introducing advanced technology products and equipment for the following industries: textile, printing and embroidery, clothing processing, fabric production, textile products and raw materials, printing on wood and ceramic materials.
With their salaries reduced to VND5-7 million ($205.79-288.22) per month, workers were struggling to cover living expenses.
Consequently, many of them had no choice but to leave large cities for their hometown, Trang said.
She expressed her hope that export orders could rebound early next year.
