A conference held in HCM City on July 28 hears that businesses need to pursue digital transformation to stay competitive. — VNA/VNS Photo Mỹ Phương

HCM CITY — Digital transformation plays an important role in improving the competitiveness of textile and apparel businesses, and businesses need to adopt it, a conference heard in HCM City on Thursday.

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Mai, deputy general secretary of the Việt Nam Textile and Apparel Association, said more and more international textile and apparel companies are pursuing green production, which is posing a great challenge to Việt Nam’s textile industry.

Vietnamese businesses also need to satisfy transparency requirements related to origin, domestic material use, labour, and environment commitments, she said.

Other experts told the conference that digital transformation is essential for improving businesses’ competitiveness, allowing them to meet customers’ demands related to quality and transparency.

Businesses should look at investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation to improve production capability, and in training their workforce to use them, they said.

Phạm Xuân Trình, CEO of the Việt Nam National Textile and Garment Group, said that the industry has been focusing on digital transformation and automation in the past few years.

Businesses have been applying technologies to monitor their entire production and business processes, and more and more companies are learning how to gather and process data in their manufacturing, supply chains and customer management, he said.

“Textile and garment businesses used to rely on cheap labour and not focus on investing in technology. But now due to rising competitiveness in the labour market, businesses need to … invest in technology.”

Mai said: “80 per cent of businesses in the field are small- to medium-sized, and so they have limited access to capital needed for digital transformation and green production.”

The conference was held as part of the International Exhibition of Textile and Garments and Fabric and Garment Accessories (SaigonTex & SaigonFabric) being held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in District 7 until Saturday. — VNS