Vietnam needs a center for trading fashion raw materials and accessories

On April 25, in Binh Duong, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien led a delegation to have a working session with the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso), and visited the ICD area (expected to build a transaction center). raw materials) and have instructions to help the leather and footwear industry grow.

Raw materials for production of the leather and footwear industry are all imported

Ms. Phan Thi Thanh Xuan – Vice President of Lefaso said that in the first quarter, the industry’s exports reached 5.6 billion USD, up 10% over the same period.

However, the leather and footwear industry is facing many challenges, including bottlenecks in the supply chain of raw materials and accessories.

Notably, currently the main footwear importing countries of Vietnam have introduced a series of new requirements for products with increasing social and environmental responsibility.

For example, from March the EU market introduced new requirements such as sustainable design, traceability and supply chain transparency. If raw materials are imported from abroad, the entire production process must be transparent.

Therefore, Vietnam needs to quickly improve and make product supply chain information transparent, aiming for a circular economy.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Thuan – Chairman of Lefaso, one of the major difficulties of the leather and footwear industry is that the supporting industry providing raw materials is not yet developed.

Currently, most of the raw materials for export production are imported from Korea, China, and Asean countries. Therefore, meeting the intra-bloc origin ratio required by FTAs ​​is a big obstacle.

Decision 879 of the Prime Minister approving Vietnam’s industrial development strategy until 2025, with a vision to 2035, has identified textile, garment, leather and footwear as two of Vietnam’s seven priority industries.

However, for the industry to develop in the coming time, there needs to be breakthrough solutions and upgrading the value chain.

“To do this, it is necessary to promote the development of the raw material supply market towards scale, standardization and transparency. Accordingly, we propose to build a development trading center area materials Vietnamese fashion industry in Binh Duong” – Mr. Thuan said.

The FDI leather and footwear industry is increasingly expanding in scale

Mr. Truong Thanh Hoai, Director of the Department of Industry, said the department highly appreciated the association’s proposal.

Resolution 115/2020 of the Prime Minister on solutions for developing supporting industries has a plan to build five centers, including two centers for the textile, garment and footwear industries.

Regarding the textile and footwear center, there are necessary and sufficient conditions for construction, and the Department of Industry fully supports it.

Mr. Le Trieu Dung, Chairman of the National Competition Commission, assessed that in recent times, the leather and footwear industry has had many activities to expand its development scale, but mainly FDI enterprises. Without support measures, Vietnamese businesses may lose at home.

Therefore, the establishment of a trading center to develop raw materials and accessories for the Vietnamese fashion industry is consistent with practice and competition law, promoting internal resources and increasing competitiveness for businesses.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien agreed with the association’s recommendation. The Minister requested relevant functional units to coordinate with the association to research and propose the development of a project to establish a trading center to develop raw materials and accessories for the Vietnamese fashion industry.

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade accompanies the association, businesses proactively coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to promptly remove difficulties.

At the same time, advise competent authorities to amend, supplement or promulgate new policy mechanisms to create favorable conditions and promote the development of the leather, footwear and handbag industry in particular and industries in general.” – Mr. Dien emphasized.