Garment businesses "welcome the wave" of new orders

After a period of crisis and limited production in 2023, starting from March 2024, many textile and garment enterprises in the province have received new orders. Some of them have enough orders to produce until the end of the year. This is a positive signal, creating momentum for enterprises to restore production, laying an important foundation for new development goals.

Garment businesses

Workers of Hoa Tho Garment Company - Dong Ha produce products for export orders to the US market - Photo: ML

For more than half a month now, the working atmosphere at the production workshops of Hoa Tho Garment Company - Dong Ha has always been busy and bustling. The company's 1,200 workers are working at full capacity to complete products for the first two orders of the year.

According to Mr. Hoang Quang Trung, Chairman of the Trade Union of Hoa Tho - Dong Ha Garment Company, these two orders are exported to the US market. These are the company's largest orders in the past 5 years.

To ensure enough products for this order, all workers of the company will continuously produce from the beginning of March to the end of September 2024. In 2023, in the context of the general crisis of the global economy, the company's orders are mainly small, so workers can only produce for 1-2 months. Therefore, workers who have just become familiar with the products of this order have switched to making products of other orders, greatly affecting labor productivity.

Besides, the company also has to add and change some machines and equipment to suit the products of each order, thus increasing costs.

“The characteristic of the industrial garment industry is that each worker is in charge of a stage, so when they have a long-term production order, they will get used to the process, repeating some technical operations over and over again, so labor productivity will be higher. Currently, the average income for workers is 7.2 million VND/person/month, but in the near future it can increase to 8-9 million VND/person/month,” Mr. Trung shared.

In Hai Lang district, these days, workers at Phong Phu - Quang Tri Export Garment Factory in Dien Sanh Industrial Park are also bustling during their shifts.

According to Mr. Le Nguyen Y, Chairman of the factory's Trade Union, the factory's orders have been "full" until the end of the year. Based on the total number of orders, the company must produce 180,000 - 220,000 products per month, however, the factory's workforce can currently only produce about 160,000 products.

The company currently has 850 workers and needs to recruit 300 more workers to meet production needs, but so far it has not recruited enough workers. "Currently, the company's workers are mainly from Hai Lang district, so we hope that recruitment information will be widely available to workers in the province to recruit more workers to meet production needs," Mr. Y shared.

According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee, in 2023, the province has more than 13 garment enterprises operating with nearly 6,000 employees; in addition, there are more than 50 garment processing establishments with over 1,200 employees. Garment enterprises have contributed to job creation, increased local budget revenue, and promoted socio-economic development of the province.

In 2024, economic experts predict that there will be many bright spots for the textile and garment industry to recover, especially in traditional export markets. Vietnam is considered a safe destination, the domestic macro economy continues to be stable, and growth is forecast to be higher than in 2023, which is a new driving force for orders to potentially return to Vietnam in greater numbers.

However, because most textile and garment enterprises in the province still operate in the form of processing, they are not proactive in the source of raw materials and design; the supporting industry for this industry is not yet developed, so enterprises face difficulties in supplying raw materials, accessories, equipment and spare parts; they have not created incentives to attract investment and attract labor for the development of the textile and garment industry, so they have not taken advantage of the opportunities and space brought by the Free Trade Agreements. Meanwhile, the world market is still very unpredictable, there are still many difficulties, so we should not be subjective but need to continue to have solutions to improve resilience and increase competitiveness in the market.

According to Mr. Pham Van Trung, Head of the Industrial Management Department, Department of Industry and Trade, to support textile and garment enterprises in the area, the department is planning to organize a conference to meet and discuss directly with representatives of enterprises operating in this field to grasp the aspirations, difficulties, obstacles as well as development orientation of enterprises.

Implementing Decision No. 1643/QDTTg of the Prime Minister on approving the Strategy for developing the textile and footwear industry in Vietnam to 2030, with a vision to 2035 in the province, in the coming time, the department will increase support for garment enterprises to approach potential customers through fairs, exhibitions, trade and investment promotion...

Promote dissemination and raise awareness among businesses about the impact of Free Trade Agreements to limit risks and maximize the benefits that these agreements bring.

Strengthening propaganda and consulting on international trade law, focusing on the contents of rules of origin, trade defense, sustainable development strategy of textile and garment industry in foreign markets so that enterprises can proactively build business strategies, proactively prepare equipment conditions, management capacity, production with the highest productivity and quality to continue to "welcome the wave" of new orders.

Mai Lam

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