Regardless of several problems arising due to labour scarcity and soaring interest rates, garment exports from Vietnam have showed positive trend in the first quarter of the current year as over corresponding period last year.
Labour scarcity is the major problem that the garment industry is confronted with at present, as each business falls short of around 18 percent total labour force, particularly after the traditional Lunar New Year Festival (Tet). Besides, rise in the interest rates and costs of raw materials too have raised production cost by around 10 to 15 percent.
However, in spite of all these adversities, garment exports registered a year on year rise of 27.9 percent during the first quarter of the current year to grow to US $2.8 billion. Many of the garment firms have even booked orders for third quarter of the current year.
The Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (VITAS) has asked its members to even out their workforce and to enhance the skills of their labourers to circumvent the losses that they suffer in compensating the importers due to delayed delivery.
Dang Phuong Dung, vice Chairperson VITAS, revealed that majority of the businesses are finding it difficult to hire labourers, but then they have accessed remote areas for hiring workers. Moreover, these companies have even introduced advanced technologies to enhance their productivity and competitiveness.