Duong Thi Ngoc Dung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said Vietnam's garment industry still relies mainly on Chinese materials such as buttons, threads, labels and packaging, with only about 30% to 40% of materials produced locally.
Language barriers and culture shock are also obstacles in managing Southeast Asian employees, some of whom are less experienced than their Chinese counterparts.
Michael Laskau, a Vietnamese businessman who connects local clothing manufacturers with overseas buyers, said:
Most customers placing orders with Vietnamese factories have shied away from signing long-term contracts due to concerns about weak global demand.
Without these longer commitments, many apparel companies are working on a month-to-month basis, and some are even planning to reduce the work week to four days to cut costs, he said.
Dung of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association said that the country's clothing export target this year is still US$40 billion, and some customers in developed countries are hesitant to rely too much on China. She said that clothing exports in the first half of the year were US$18.6 billion, accounting for 11.3% of Vietnam's overall exports.
