Vietnam News Agency reported on April 16, 2023 that digital transformation, formulating design-compliant or recycling old clothes are activities taken by Vietnam’s textile and garment industry to create a circular economy.
Nguyen Phu Hung, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Enterprise Association, said that the textile factories in the association are facing many difficulties, including lack of funds and difficulty in obtaining loans. Therefore, textile mills have not invested since mid-2022 and tend to resell, thus losing their brands.
Statistical data shows that in the first quarter of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City’s textile exports fell by 8% year-on-year. The Ho Chi Minh City Enterprises Association predicts that textile factories will face many difficulties and challenges in the future.
Pham Van Viet, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Textile Embroidery and Knitting Association and General Manager of Viet Jean Co., Ltd. emphasized that one of the key measures to reverse the situation and reposition the Vietnamese textile and garment industry One is to carry out digital transformation.
Fan Wenyue revealed that since the digital transformation of Yuesheng Jean Company, not only has its human resources been optimized, but its corporate operations and product quality have also been significantly improved. In addition, the company also applies nanotechnology (nano) and ozone technology in fabric dyeing and coloring, which helps minimize waste emissions.
In addition to digital transformation, creating a circular economy is also one of the urgent needs of textile factories. Regarding this issue, Pham Van Viet pointed out that circular economy is to try to achieve reuse and eliminate adverse effects on the environment in all aspects from product design, production to service supply.
Saving resources, protecting the environment, promoting economic development, and maintaining social benefits are the four basic benefits brought by the circular economy. This is completely consistent with the 3R principle – reduce raw materials, reuse and recycle items – that has been mentioned in the world for ten years.
Fan Wenyue pointed out that although the textile and clothing industry makes a huge contribution to the economy, it is also one of the largest polluting industries in the world. Therefore, many countries around the world have established sustainability standards for imported textiles. This requires Vietnam’s textile and garment industry to “green” to promote sustainable development. From this point of view, achieving sustainable development in the direction of circular management is an inevitable trend in Vietnam’s textile and garment industry.
It is understood that many textile factories have achieved “green production” and achieved initial results. For example, Faslink has invested in and built multiple factories with a total area of 10,000 square meters, equipped with more than 300 modern equipment, and developed 5 kinds of “green” fabrics, such as coffee grounds fiber, lotus fiber, shell fiber, coconut fiber, and mint fiber.
In addition, Success Trade Investment Textile Joint Stock Company has successfully produced and distributed products made from recycled fiber or bottle fiber, corn fiber or natural materials and has been favored by Japan, Adidas or Favored by fashion brands such as Les Faces.
According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association’s forecast, difficulties in textile and apparel export activities will continue until the end of the second quarter of 2023. Therefore, digital transformation, supply chain greening, production greening, etc. will be the steps to achieve breakthroughs in the textile and apparel industry in the future.
