Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) This development strategy sets the goal of turning Vietnam into acountry that produces export textiles, garments and footwear, meetingrequirements for sustainable development.
Vietnam also targets to reach a total export turnover of footwearand handbags of 38-40 billion USD by 2030. The industry by 2035 will havesustainable development according to the green economy model, complete thedomestic production value chain, and effectively participate in the globalvalue chain. It will develop a number of regional and world brands.
Diep Thanh Kiet, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Leather, Footwearand Handbag Association (LEFASO), said that to achieve the goals of thestrategy, Vietnamese leather and footwear enterprises must focus on thestandards of sustainable development.
When the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) comes intoeffect, Vietnamese enterprises cannot export to Europe if their products do notsatisfy CBAM's criteria, even if these products meet the requirements under theEU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
At the same time, enterprises must develop their ability to designproducts and reduce production costs to the lowest level.
Meanwhile, the Government needs to issue policies on encouraginglocalisation of raw materials, and implementing the standards on sustainabledevelopment.
According to Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the HCM City Union ofBusiness Associations (HUBA), the development of a green economy is mandatorynot only for businesses but also for the whole economy.
Sustainable development is not a burden, but an investment inopportunities for business in the future. Some businesses have received manyorders after complying with the green production process.
Senior economist Nguyen Minh Phong said the domestic carbon creditmarket would pilot operation from 2025 and operate officially in 2028 underinternational commitments. This market promises to create an impetus forVietnamese businesses to move towards low-emission production. Enterprises withgreat emission reduction potential at low cost could immediately invest inconverting to emission reduction technologies.
According to the observation of Maxime Rogeon, head of theFootwear Team, at Decathlon Vietnam, Vietnam has many advantages, such as largeexport markets thanks to FTAs and domestic material supply at 50% of demand.Besides that, almost all of the world's major footwear manufacturers havedeveloped production facilities in Vietnam. However, this country needssolutions for green logistics, sourcing and faster shipping.
Vietnam's leather and footwear industry also needs policies toencourage the application of artificial intelligence technology in production.
Additionally, Vietnam needs to restructure the footwear industryand apply sustainable production and business models that save productioncosts.
Le Hung Cuong, Digital Director of FPT Digital, a subsidiary ofFPT Corporation, recommended that footwear businesses needed to participate inshared ecosystems, thereby taking advantage of big data.
The digital transformation process needs to ensure safety forcompany data but also customer data, according to Cuong.
Businesses also need to pay attention to optimising customerexperience and interactions for all stages of the business process.
At present, about 65% of Vietnam's footwear production capacity isconcentrated in the Southeast region. The percentage is 16% in the Red RiverDelta; 15% in the Mekong Delta; 3% in the North Central and Central Coastregions; and 1% in the Northern mountainous region.
Of which, the Southeast region and the Mekong River Delta have atendency to reduce production capacity. The North Central Coast, Central Coastand Mekong River Delta are on an increasing trend.
Therefore, businesses and investors should pay attention to thesetrends if they want to expand production, otherwise, it will not be easy tofind workers, according to experts.
Kiet said LEFASO had developed an export scenario for 2023. In theoptimistic scenario, production will recover from the third quarter, and thefootwear industry's export turnover is expected to reach 25.8 billion USD thisyear, down 7.5% compared to last year.
In another scenario, production will be restored in the fourthquarter of 2023. This year's export turnover is expected to reach 25 billionUSD, down 10.5% compared to 2022.
In a negative scenario, by the fourth quarter of this year,production has not yet recovered, so the export turnover is predicted to reach 24.4billion USD, down 14.5% compared to 2022./.
VNA
