Garment, footwear firms to receive honours

Workers at Garment Joint Stock Co No 10 make T-shirts. The garment industry can reach $11 billion export turnover this year. Photo Tran Thanh Giang

The awards ceremony will be jointly held by the Saigon Times, the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association (VITAS) and the Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (LEFASO).

Recipient organisations include 64 textile and garment businesses, and 20 from the leather and footwear sector. The event represents the 7th awards ceremony for textile and garment sector and the second for the leather and footwear industry.

Top prizes for compre-hensively outstanding enterprises will be given to 15 garment and textile, and five leather and footwear companies.

Leading the pack in the garment industry is Viet Tien Garment Joint Stock Co, while the top position among textile companies is Viet Thang Textile Corporation. Thai Binh Investment and Footwear Production Corporation leads the leather and footwear sector.

Viet Tien Co has held on to the top position for the past seven years. It is expected to reach VND120 billion ($6 million) in revenues this year with profit set to account for 44 per cent.

"To gain the leading position, Viet Tien has made bold investment in equipment, technology and human resources to raise product quality as well as develop our trademark, boost advertising and remodel after-sales services to customers," said Phan Van Kiet, the company's deputy director general.

His firm started exporting its products with the Viet Tien trademark to Cambodia last year. This year it has brought its brand name to Laos and would enter the Myanmar market in December. Singapore, Malaysia and China would follow next year, he said.

Viet Tien has exported products (with trademarks of other well-known global companies) to more than 100 customers in over 50 countries.

New in the event this year was the organisers' decision to award eight workshops and four vocational schools in the garment and textile sector, rather than limiting the prize to companies only, said Le Quoc An, chairman of VITAS, at a press conference in Hanoi yesterday.

"Organisers want to emphasise the significant role of three factors in each firm: good product quality, productivity and good relations between employees and employers," said An.

The award has been organised annually but a recent decision by the Prime Minister indicates that future awards will be held every 3 – 5 years. The 8th instalment is scheduled to take place in 2013.

In the first 10 months of this year, the textile and garment sector – the country's largest foreign currency earner – notched up a $9.2 billion export turnover.

"It is completely possible for the industry to hit over $11 billion export value by the end of the year," said An.

Vo Thi Tong, deputy chair-woman of LEFASO, said the leather and footwear industry earned $4.06 billion in the first 10 months and could reach more than $5 billion for the whole year. For the first time, it had surpassed the oil and gas industry to become the country's second foreign currency earner.

"Combining the export revenue of the two sectors, the figure could reach $16 billion by the end of this year, accounting for one-fourth of the nation's total export value and generating more than three million jobs," An said.

The Vietnamese government has set an export turnover for textile and garments of $18 billion by 2015, but VITAS plans to raise the target to $20 billion.