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Many challenges
Mr. Truong Van Cam - Vice President of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association said that textile and garment is a key export industry, with an annual turnover of about 40-45 billion USD, mainly exported to markets such as the US, EU, Japan, and South Korea. These are demanding markets with very high requirements for green products.
According to the leader of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, to have green products, the first step is to exploit green raw materials for production. This is one of the challenges for textile and garment enterprises. Currently, the textile and garment industry imports over 70% of raw materials and can only produce about 30% itself.
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| Sustainable production: What is making it difficult for textile and garment businesses? Photo: Dony |
“ Importing raw materials and knowing where they come from and whether they are green and clean is a very important issue. Therefore, it is necessary to trace the origin. However, this issue depends on the form of export of the enterprise, ” said Mr. Cam.
“ If the partner lets domestic enterprises choose raw materials or produce in a form of outright purchase, the enterprise must pay close attention to checking the origin. For example, where is the cotton produced, how is the yarn produced, what is the structure? All of these issues are related to clean raw materials and producing clean, green products ,” the leader of the Textile and Garment Association added.
In order to meet the green standards of import markets, in recent years, domestic textile and garment enterprises have developed environmentally friendly raw materials such as: silk, pineapple fiber, banana fiber, shells, coffee grounds... In particular, enterprises have planted green hemp with a large area of 5,000-6,000 hectares in Thanh Hoa, Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien... this will be a source of green raw materials for production. However, to develop a source of raw materials on a large enough scale to serve export production requires huge investment capital, which is also a big challenge for enterprises.
Recommendations from experts
Sustainable production and green product development are irresistible trends. Aware of this issue, at the beginning of 2018, the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association introduced the PPP model (P- green development enterprises but must be profitable; P- textile and garment industry lacks labor and cannot produce; P- environmental protection).
The association itself has also coordinated with many international organizations to organize seminars and training courses to raise awareness among employers and employees about sustainable development.
“ With about 85% of small and medium-sized enterprises, domestic textile and garment enterprises have different resources for green and sustainable production. Therefore, green production cannot be carried out at all costs but needs to be implemented appropriately according to the enterprise’s resources and have appropriate steps. Only then can we ensure that enterprises can both survive and develop while ensuring green and clean requirements ,” Mr. Cam analyzed.
In order not to fall behind the green production and consumption trends of the world textile market, the leader of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association said that, first, businesses must be self-sufficient in raw materials.
Regarding this, Mr. Cam added that the Strategy for the development of Vietnam's textile and footwear industry to 3030, with a vision to 2035, includes a very important content: establishing large textile and footwear complexes with enterprises and investors with advanced technology. Only such large complexes can concentrate enough water resources to build a wastewater treatment center and reuse it for enterprises in industrial parks.
“ Tam Thang Industrial Park – Quang Nam has collected and treated about 80% of the wastewater, then reused it at a cost 15-20% lower ,” said Mr. Cam.
At the same time, install rooftop solar power to be able to buy, sell, exchange and use clean energy sources.
On the other hand, greening production and products requires a huge amount of funding. Enterprises want the government to have a policy on green credit and provide certain support on interest rates and training human resources for enterprises to develop green transformation plans.
Agreeing with the above viewpoint, Mr. Mac Quoc Anh - Vice President and General Secretary of the Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, expressed: A tax policy suitable for businesses converting to green and sustainable production is very important.
Currently, VAT is reduced by 2% to 8% for all businesses, so for green production businesses, the state can consider reducing some additional taxes such as energy consumption tax, gasoline tax, etc. to stimulate stronger investment.
Whether a business successfully transitions to green production or not is also related to sustainable consumption. Accordingly, in the domestic market, experts also believe that, in addition to propaganda work, the retail system needs to have effective solutions so that consumers can clearly identify which products are green and how to behave with them.
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