VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES TRAN THI VAN ANH VIETNAMESE TEXTILE AND GARMENT ENTERPRISES IN THE CONEXT OF THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TÀI THỦY-BỘ NỘI ĐỊA Ở ĐỒNG BẰNG SÔNG CỬU LONG Concentration: Code: Development Economics 9.31.01.05 SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS HA NOI – 2019 This doctoral thesis is accomplished at: GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Academic advisors: Dr Phi Vinh Tuong Dr Duong Dinh Giam Reviewer 1: Prof PhD Do Duc Binh Reviewer 2: Assoc Prof PhD Vu Hung Cuong Reviewer 3: Assoc Prof PhD Nguyen Van Thao This doctoral thesis is to be defended before the Thesis Defense Committee of the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, at: Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, 477 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi Time: Date: Archived at: - Library of the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences - Vietnam National Library INTRODUCTION Research justification Textile and garment enterprises in Vietnam have been utilizing most of development opportunities brough about by international economic integration, particularly after Vietnam’s official membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) The developtment of Vietnam’s textile and garment enterprises have contributed to the increase of earnings in foreign currency and the textile and garment export turnover, which climbed from USD 5.85 billion in 2006 to USD 36.14 billion in 2018, seven times bigger after one decade This development reflected more clearly in the export structure of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry Besides garment products as the main export, the textile and garment enterprises have traded internationally products such as fibers, fabrics, textile materials or nonwoven fabrics The total export value of fibers, fabrics or textile materials in 2018, which were were respectively USD 3.95 billion, USD 1.66 billion and USD 1.23 billion, was higher than the total export value of 2006 The development of textile and garment enterprises have also increased the labor demand In recent years, the textile and garment labor force has accounted for more than 20% of the total employment in manufacturing and nearly 5% of the country’s labor force The industry in 2017 created about 2.5 million jobs, of which 80% were for female workers With such development, the textile and garment industry has been contributing to the process of industrialization and modernization, the transformation of economic and labor structures, and economic growth Morever, the growth of textile and garment enterprises also acts a buffer for the economy against shocks due to negative impacts of international or domestic crises Even in the period of economic crisis, Vietnam’s textile and garment export turnover reached USD 9.12 billion in 2008 and USD 9.07 billion in 2009, higher than that of 2006 and 2007 Despite such contribution to Vietnam’s economic achievements, textile and garment enterprises face certain obstacles in development These have been the focus of many studies, such as investment mobilization for production expansion, technological renovation, labor quality and fluctuation of labor number, limited capacity for research and development (R&D), or barriers in evlevating to higher value-added phases of the global value chains While the aforementioned development issues are still being addressed, the fourth industrial revolution taking place in recent decades continues to pose new development challenges and issues for Vietnam’s textile and garment enterprises Under the influence of the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 (hereinafter referred to as Industry 4.0), the technology and methods for textile and garment production would have fundamentally changed, not only for the matter of how to produce but also to produce for which market sizes thanks to the application of new internetbased technologies More than ever, enterprises in developed economies with the early application of the achievements of Industry 4.0 and international economic integration have gain advantages and posed challenges for businesses in developing and transitioning economies, including Vietnam While the role of textile and garment enterprises in the process of industrialization and modernization in developing and transitioning economies is undeniable, promoting the development of these enterprises faces increasing difficulties In order to reach the goals of industrialization and modernization in the context of Industry 4.0, the continued promotion of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises is necessary because of its important roles in the economy in terms of job creation, contribution to the state budget, transformation of economic structure, and as a buffer against the shocks caused by structural changes and integration With that important role of textile and garment enterprises and challenges brought by Industry 4.0, the author selected the topic of “Vietnam Textile and Garment Enterprises in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” for a doctoral thesis Rationale and research objectives 2.1 Rationale The aim of the thesis is to clarify the development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in the context of the ongoing Industry 4.0 and propose a number of textile and garment enterprise development solutions 2.2 Research objectives The thesis aims at specific research objectives as follows: To identify some theoretical issues on enterprise development, focusing on determinant factors to the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0; to draw some practical lessons learned from the practices of textile and garment development in some countries To assess the current development situation of Vietnam’s textile and garment enterprises in the period of 2007-2018 in order to identify some development issues; to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing these enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 To propose some solutions for the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 from the author’s viewpoints Research focus and scope of study 3.1 Research focus The research focuses on the development of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 3.2 Scope of study - The research focuses on the development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises within the territory of Vietnam - The development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises within the territory of Vietnam are studied for the period of 2007-2018 although Industry 4.0 only began in 2014 The proposed solutions are designed for the period 2020-2025 with vision to 2030 Research approach and methodology 4.1 Research approach Based on the combination of enterprise and value chain theories, the thesis assesses the recent development of textile and garment enterprises in Vietnam and identifies the factors affecting their development; to analyze opportunities and challenges facing textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 and to offer specific solutions and recommendations to promote their development thereby 4.2 Methodology The thesis adopts qualitative research methods with the following analytical tools: Desk research: This method is used bfor the review of literature, both in theory and practice, to clarify the theoretical and practical issues that have been resolved regarding the textile and garment enterprise development This lays a groundwork for the author to identify research gaps for the selected issues and for the contents and analytical methods that can be inherited from previous studies Methods applied include generalization and comparative analysis, statistical description, inductive and deductive reasoning: These methods are used to analyze and assess the development situation of textile and garment enterprises in 2007-2017, to synthesize development issues and to compare development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises before and after Industry 4.0 takes place In-depth interviews were also applied to clarify some specific development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises, for example the connection between Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises and foreign enterprises in the global textile and garment value chain The author interviewed a number of experts in the indutry, including experts of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, the Association of Garment Textile Embroidery and Knitting in Ho Chi Minh City, and several leaders of textile and garment companies in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh (with attached list) Not only applied to the implementation of the situation analysis content, this method is also used in better understanding the opportunities and challenges of development of Vietnamese textile enterprises in the coming period SWOT analysis was used in Chapters and 4, which helps to clarify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 Based on SWOT analysis, the thesis proposes solution groups for the aforementioned issues Scientific contributions Firstly, the thesis contributes to systematization of theoretical and practical issues on the development of textile and garment enterprises with rapid development of production and business models under the influence of Industry 4.0 It is, thereby, to identify criteria to assess the development of these enterprises in the new context Secondly, the development of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in the period of 2007-2018 is assessed on the basis of applying the aforementioned theoretical basis and the development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises are identified accordingly in the period before and after Industry 4.0 is officially discussed by scholars and policy makers (2014) Thirdly, the thesis provides explanation for influencing factors to the development of these enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 and also fo the causes of their development issues Lastly, a number of solutions are proposed in order to develop Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in a new context, which are based on the views and orientations of the author from the perspective of Industry 4.0 Theoretical and practical significance Theoretically, the thesis identifies more theoretical issues on enterprise development in the context of traditional (i.e physical) production methods being replaced by new production methods (i.e combination between physical and non-physical platforms) In practical terms, the dissertation contributes additional arguments to build the development orientation of Vietnam’s textile and apparel enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 This is a reliable reference document for researchers and policy makers who are interested in the development of textile and garment enterprises Structure of the thesis In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, Appendix and References, the thesis is structured in four chapters as follows: Chapter Review of literature Chapter Theoretical rationale and international practices for textile and garment enterprises development Chapter Current development situation of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in 2007-2018 Chapter Solutions for the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 CHAPTER REVIEW OF LITERATURE 1.1 Studies on textile and garment enterprises in the world Business development issues are always concerned by governments because of its role in creating material wealth and meeting the needs of material and refined goods of the people Enterprise development is approached from various perspectives, such as micro level (firm level), industry level, national level or global level (production network or production chain/value chain) At firm-level, on the basis of resource-based theory of the firm and industrial organization theory, research so far have focused on the role of resources for the development of businesses and the formation of economic sectors Accordingly, the existence and development of enterprises depend on the resource groups: (a) physical resources (such as machinery, factories, land); (b) human capital; and (c) institutional capital Facing the challenges of sustaining and increasing “super profit” to survive and thrive, businesses must address the issue of mobilizing and effectively using three aforementioned groups of resources At sector level, in addition to internal factors, the development of enterprises also depends on external resources, which are formed on the basis of increasing the number of enterprises concentrated in a geographical range (industrial clusters, industrial zones, regions) contributes to reducing the cost of transporting goods of each business as well as reducing the labor market access costs This is the basis for businesses to maintain a competitive advantage At global level, studies discuss the development of enterprises in the organization of global production networks and production chains This is a way for businesses to benefit more from specialization and production cooperation 1.2 Vietnamese studies on textile and garment enterprises Studies are based on the approaches of theories of business, industrial organization and value chains From that, the factors affecting the development of textile enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 are identified Firstly, internal factors affecting business results of enterprises include capital, firm size, labor and technology Second, the external factors influencing enterprise include infrastructure, industrial clusters, industrial zones/parks, government policies Studies also show that technological breakthroughs of Industry 4.0 are expected to change the whole textile and garment industry, as well as identifies opportunities and challenges facing garment businesses in this new context 1.3 Research gap The development issues of enterprises in general and of textile and garment enterprises in particular in the world have been approached and solved based on the theories of development economics and theories of business, industrial, organization or value chains However, each study has its own objectives, approaches and scopes, so business development issues could not all be addressed Especially, the change of production methods and business models under the influence of Industry 4.0 has been creating new development issues for textile and garment enterprises Thus, it is necessary to continue studying and identifying solutions for serving the development of the textile and apparel business types of digital technology and convergence of digital and other technologies For example, combining the new sensor technology with big data analytics, cloud computing and and the IoT is promoting automation and smart manufacturing systems Industry 4.0 has the following fundamental characteristics: First, the nature of Industry 4.0 is a combination between the real and virtual worlds on the digital platform, forming the virtual production system (Cyber-Physical Production System – CPSS) that changes the principle of production Secondly, Industry 4.0 has brought about historical changes in terms of scale, speed and influence compared to previous industrial revolutions Third, Industry 4.0 emphasizes integration and connection between technologies, but does not exclude the specific application of individual technologies 2.2.2 Determinant factors to the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 The development of textile and garment enterprises is influenced by internal and external factors: Internal factors include human resources, (financial and other material) capital, and technological capital External factors include: (i) the development of production networks and industry clusters; (ii) the quality of infrastructure; and (iii) the government policies 2.3 Internaltional practices of textile and garment enterprise development and lessons for Vietnam Based on the analysis of two examples of China and India, the thesis draws some lessons for developing textile and garment enterprises in Vietnam as follows:  Firstly, it is necessary to support these enterprises through government policies  Second, synchronous development of infrastructure 11  Third, investment in R&D  Fourth, improving the quality of human resources for textile and garment industry 12 CHAPTER DEVELOPMENT SITUATION OF VIETNAMESE TEXTILE AND GARMENT ENTERPRISES IN 2007-2018 3.1 Development situation of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in 2007-2018 3.1.1 Changes in the number of enterprises Only two years after Vietnam officially became a member of the WTO, the number of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises increased rapidly, from 2,994 (2007) to 4,621 (2009) Five years later, the number of Vietnamese private textile and apparel enterprises reached about 5,943 (2011) In 2017, the number of Vietnamese textile enterprises surged to about 10,604, which marked a development in the number of Vietnamese textile enterprises after a decade of international integration 3.1.2 Structural transformation of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises Structural transformation by ownership In more than a decade of development (2007-2017), the number of Vietnamese private textile and apparel enterprises has increased rapidly The structure of Vietnam’s textile and apparel enterprises, by ownership, has shifted towards increasing the proportion of private sector enterprises The proportion of textile enterprises with 100% foreign owned capital decreased relatively The share of state-owned textile and garment enterprises has decreased insignificantly because the proportion of stateowned enterprises (SOEs) has decreased to a very low level due to the SOEs reform by the government Structural transformation by size Enterprise structure by size, whether by the size of labor or by capital, reflects the underdeveloped situation of Vietnamese textile enterprises Over the past decade, Vietnamese textile and apparel enterprises have not been large in scale, while the textile and garment industry is characterized by the economies of scale In other words, the Vietnamese economy could hardly benefit from the textile and apparel sector if Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises continue their smallscale production 13 Structural transformation by region The development of textile and garment enterprises by region has changed in the last decade In general, the Red River Delta region (Region I) and the Southeast region (Region V), compared to other regions in the country, are the two regions attracting the most textile enterprises Besides, the Southwest region is also the area with the concentration of textile and garment enterprises, but with a lower rate than those two regions Structural transformation by years of experience Most of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises are newly established with few years of experience The percentage of enterprises with less than 10 years of experience accounts for nearly 60% of the total number of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises The proportion of enterprises with over 10 years of experience and over thirty years of experience accounts make ups over 35% of the total number of enterprises in the industry 3.1.3 Quality of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in 2007-2018 In the 2007-2018 period, the business results reflect increasing difficulties facing Vietnamese private textile and apparel enterprises The number of the loss-claiming businesses tends to increase both in absolute and relative numbers This indicates (1) high competitive level in the textile and garment industry, especially the garment industry and (2) weak competitiveness of Vietnamese private textile and garment enterprises Enterprises has low labor efficiency (the ratio of average revenue per employee over average income per employee) In 2017, most businesses had a labor efficiency ratio of less than 10%, which means that for every VND spent on labor, it earned less than 1.1 VND of revenue 3.1.4 Development situation of textile and garment enterprises in the global value chains Vietnamese textile and apparel enterprises have upgraded channels in 2007-2018 Domestic enterprises have become more involved in the textile and garment chains of international “buyers” and expanded their export markets to many countries in the region and in the world 14 The result of upgrading Vietnam’s global textile and apparel value chain is essentially an upgrade to new value chains when higher valueadded products are replacing lower value-added products Although still present in the same production stage, the transition from low to higher value-added production has also enabled Vietnamese enterprises to enjoy more profits 3.2 State of inflencing factors to the development of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises 3.2.1 Internal factors 3.2.1.1 Human resources Vietnam textile and garment sector, especially the garment industry, employs a large number of labors By the end of 2017, the textile and garment industry had 1.84 million of direct industrial labor out of about 2.5 million people working in the industry However, statistics show the quality of the textile and garment labor force is still low Unskilled workers make up a high proportion (19%) and non-formally trained workers make up 75% 3.2.1.2 Capital The financial indicators ROE, ROA, and ROS show that Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises mainly exploit equity capital and use ineffective financial leverage In other words, the employment of loans from commercial banks or financial guarantee funds is very limited 3.2.1.3 Technological factors While Industry 4.0 is strongly taking place, the technologies applied in textile and garment industry are not really innovative The year 2017 marked change in the technology status of textile and garment enterprises when the proportion of enterprises using outdated technologies by two to three generations has decreased significantly The majority of them are now using one-decade older technologies A large proportion of businesses have been using new technologies dated from 2010 to present This fact reflects the efforts of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in narrowing the technological gap with their counterparts in the world 15 Regarding the origin of textile and garment technology, statistics show Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises mainly import technology produced by Northeast Asian countries About the level of interest, Vietnamses textile and garment enterprises are less interested in investing in technology innovation and applying technological equipment or information technology (IT) Most of them have applied IT, with 58% for administraion, 31% for production management and 7% for the whole production process 3.2.2 External factors 3.2.2.1 The development of production networks and industry clusters Among conventional industrial clusters in Vietnam, a number of them have been operated following the model of satellite sectors including the textile industry due to the market requirements In order to serve production actitivies, while 20%-30% of raw materials are made domestically, up to 70%-80% are imported 3.2.2.2 Infrastructure For transport connection, Vietnam has been developing the northsouth road systems and highways in the Red River Delta and the Southeast regions Regarding telecommunications, Vietnam has built a modern infrastructural system on par with many countries in the world About waste and wastewater treatment, although its is required by laws that textile and dyeing companies must have a waste treatment system that meets the environmental and wastewater standards, very few companies satisfy the requirements 3.2.2.3 Vietnam’s policies for the development of textile and garment industry Current related policies are categorized in groups as follows:  Development strategy and planning for the industry;  Training of textile and garment human resources;  Credit policies for technological innovation;  Development of auxiliary industries in textiles and garment 16  Strengthening firm capacity for Industry 4.0 Many issues, in terms of both the regulation contents and enforcement mechanisms, need to be addressed regarding the textile and garment policies as well as general policies related to strengthening the capacity of enterprises for Industry 4.0 It would help restore the confidence of enterprises and investors for long-term investment, especially investment in research and application of science and technology and in Industry 4.0 digital technology 3.3 Development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises First, increase in the number but not in the size of enterprises; Two, restricted development of textile and garment enterprises due to the imbalanced structure of the industry; Third, heavy dependence on imported materials; Fourth, limited capital and low accessibility to capital investment for technological innovation; Five, low quality of labor and high volatility of labor markets Six, low willingness of garment and textile enterprises to apply the achievements of Industry 4.0; Seven, businesses joined the global value chain but at stages of low value-added; Eight, lack of R&D centers in the production area with high concentration of businesses 3.4 Strengths and weaknesses of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 Strengths (S) S1: Rapid increase in number of domestic private textile and apparel enterprises S2: Concentration of enterprises by region S3: Presence of some Vietnamese private textile and apparel enterprises in higher value-added stages of the global textile and apparel chain 17 S4 Some strong domestic brands by a number of large private enterprises (originated from SOEs) Weaknesses (W) W1: Most businesses operating in micro and small scales against a small number of medium-sized ones W2: High rate of loss-making businesses W3: Low level of technology in comparison with the region and the world levels; slow technological improvement W4: High dependence on imported materials W5: Lack of R&D centers for textile and garment industry W6: Absence of textile and garment production chains and value chains W7: Low readiness for application of technological achievements of Industry 4.0 W8: Low-skilled labor 18 CHAPTER SOLUTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TEXTILE AND GARMENT ENTERPRISES IN THE CONTEXT OF INDUSTRY 4.0 4.1 New development context 4.1.1 Inevitable trend of international economic integration 4.1.2 Development trends of the world’s fashion industry under the Industry 4.0 influence Firstly, the rise of machine learning Second, optimization of supply chains Third, presence of robots in manufacturing sectors Fourth, fast data analysis for quick adaptation Thursday, 3D design, 3D printing and volume customization Friday, sensor-based fashion and digital clothing 4.1.3 Expansion of Vietnam’s middle class 4.2 Opportunities and challenges for textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 and integration 4.2.1 Opportunities Firstly, changes in production and trading methods of textile and garment enterprises Second, changes in traditional business models Thirdly, opportunities brought about by bilateral and multilateral agreements.Fourthly, to develop the domestic markets 4.2.2 Challenge Firstly, growing competition Second, challenges of catching up with the rapid technological changes Third, challenges of participating in new generation global value chains 19 Fourth, risks of losing jobs to traditional textile and garment workers Fifthly, challenges brought about by bilateral and multilateral agreements 4.3 Viewpoints and orientations for the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 4.3.1 Viewpoints The happening of Industry 4.0 is inevitable and will affect many industries and fields An active participation is both a requirement and a challenge facing textile and garment enterprises They should turn this challenge into opportunity for the innovation of production towards modernization and strengthening their capacity and competitiveness 4.3.2 Orientations First, to select strategic directions towards an active participation in Industry 4.0 Second, to promote in short term garment exports in order to take advantage of market opportunities Third, to be more proactive in raw materials for production inputs Fourth, to constantly update technologies when new investment for technology available Fifth, to proactively strengthen cooperation with training institutions for high quality labor to meet the requirements of integration and improve the ability to access and operate new technological achievements of Industry 4.0 4.4 Major solutions for the development of textile and garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 First, more complete and uniform policies facilitating the access to exploitation of Industry 4.0 achievements It is necessary to continue the perfection of regulations on improving Vietnam’s investment and business environment towards Industry 4.0 (with fairness, equality and transparency) and regulations related to the promotion of scientific and technological applications This 20 would promote innovation and technology application, including digital technologies, in enterprises) Besides, it is also important to improve policies on high-quality labor development and regulations related to information and connection security Policies on taxes, customs, salaries, social and health insurances need to be made more specific and transparent The stability of the policy systems should also be ensured in order to creat a secured legal environment for enterprises doing business Second, Development of infrastructure to enable enterprises to access and applicationachievements of industry 4.0 In particular, especial emphasis on information technology and telecommunications infrastructure; development of e-commerce, Third, Training of high-quality human resources - Changing the training model/method and curriculum in accordance with the requirements of Industry 4.0 - Investing in training equipment in the direction of keeping updated with Industry 4.0 such as automation equipment, robots industrial - Implement retraining and complementary training for the lowskilled workforce, prioritizing the knowledge and skills related to information technology application, automation, management and analytical skills information - Training laborers with fashion vision, foreign languages, information technology to updatetrends the world fashion - Building public laboratories, creating opportunities for technical personnel of textile enterprises may participate in research and development experiments to improve technology for businesses - It is necessary to have close cooperation between universities, textile associations, businesses to ensure appropriate training programs in line with the practical operation requirements of the enterprise; Regularly organize short updates and training sessions for employees to change their minds and operate modern equipment with new software installed In addition, building a model of medium-sized garment enterprises in training establishments ofworkers textileis also a solution that needs to be focused 21 Fourth Supporting textile and technology enterprises to innovate Technology - Adopt preferential tax policies ralated to the import of high –tech machinery for production - Take synchronous solutions to remove difficulties for enterprises to access bank capital effectively - Strengthening the linkage between scientists and businesses to commercialize research Fifth Building and upgrading a cluster of strengthening linkages and cooperation in the textile cluster industries, When building textile zones and clusters, attention needs to be paid: + Indentify suitable areas to develop the textile dyeing industry + Preparing and inplementing public or PPP projects to build industrial zones with high standard wastewater treatment system for textile dyeing industry Sixth, enhancing the readiness to apply 4.0 technologies of enterprises In addition to the support from the government, enterprises should improve proactively access capacity to apply 4.0 technologies in mangement and production activities as well as having a strategy to restructure workers and standardization of the whole production chain; focus on intergrating digital technology; equip technical knowledge for workers and organizations to master new technologies 22 CONCLUSION The thesis titled “Vietnamese textile and garment enterprise in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” has achieved its objectives and answered the research questions, contributing to solving textile enterprise development issues in the new context of Industry 4.0 Firstly, the thesis has reviewed the development theories of enterprises in general and of textile and garment enterprises in particular On that theoretical basis together with the approaches from resource-based perspective and the theories of industrial organization and value chain, the author has analyzed and evaluated the development of textile and garment enterprises following the indicators of quantity and quality development, structural transformation, and upgrading performance of enterprises in the global textile and apparel chains Besides, the thesis also examined the conception of Industry 4.0 along with factors affecting the development of textile and enterprises enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 International practices of developing textile and garment enterprises in China and India are also good examples for Vietnam to learn from Secondly, the development state of textile and garment enterprises in the 2007-2018 period has been assessed based on the set of aforementioned criteria Accordingly, the development issues of textile and garment enterprises have been identified (1) Despite an increase in the number, the production scale of textile and garment enterprises did not change (2) The development of textile and garment enterprises is limited due to the imbalance in their structure (3) These enterprises also depend heavily on imported materials (4) Their capital scale and access to capital sources for technology innovation remain low (5) Low labor quality is also observed in the textile and garment industry (6) The enterprises are either not ready for application of Industry 4.0 achievements yet (7) Those who are able to participate in the global chains are still operating in low valueadded stages (8) There is the absence of R&D centers despite the high concentration of enterprises In addition, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges for textileand garment enterprises in the context of Industry 4.0 and integration have been analyzed also to serve as a basis for proposing solutions 23 Thirdly, the thesis has systemized the proposed solutions for the enterprise development in the context of Industry 4.0 based on the author’ suggested viewpoints and orientations In the new context, textile and garment enterprises have opportunities to develop and enhance their competitiveness, such as the adoption of new production methods and trading methods by taking advantage of the Industry 4.0 achievements In the short term, thanks to Vietnam’s signed FTAs, textile and garment enterprises would also face opportunities to expand their markets as well as to elevate to higher stages in the global chains Nevertheless, textile and garment enterprises would at the same time meet with many challenges in approaching the Industry 4.0 achievements and difficulties in taking advantage of the preferential tariffs under the signed FTAs to improve their competitiveness In the new context, enterprises in the industry need assistance from the state for a fairer and more transparent business environment It would enable the enterprises to innovate and apply technology in their production and business activities The government should also develop further the infrastructure for information technology and telecommunications and ecommerce to help enterprises access and apply the achievements of Industry 4.0 More policies should be made available for improving the training of high-quality human resources With such policies being in place, textile and garment enterprises could seize opportunities brought about by Industry 4.0 to improve their competitiveness and increase value added accordingly towards the formation of textile and apparel supply chains led by Vietnamese enterprises 24 RELATED PUBLICATIONS BY THE AUTHOR Nguyen Chien Thang, Tran Thi Van Anh, Ekaterina Nikolaeva (2019) Textile and Garment Enterprises in Vietnam under the Context of Industrial Revolution 4.0, Economic Sciences, No (429), pp.186-194 Tran Thi Van Anh (2018), Infuencing factors to the technological upgrade of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises, Economic Studies, No 12(487), pp 48-58 Tran Thi Van Anh (2017), “Industry 4.0: opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises”, Human Resources for Social Sciences, No 12(55) Phi Vinh Tuong, Tran Thi Van Anh (2016), Vietnamese textile and garment industry in the global value chain: Achievements and Prospects, Economic Studies, No 12(463) Tran Thi Van Anh (2015), FDI contribution to industrial structure transformation in Vietnam, Economic Studies, No 10(449) Phi Vinh Tuong, Tran Thi Van Anh, Trinh Hoang Minh (2014), “The development of Vietnam's garment industry”, Vietnam's socio-economic development, No 79, pp 34-57 ... garment enterprises within the territory of Vietnam - The development issues of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises within the territory of Vietnam are studied for the period of 2007-2018... Vietnam officially became a member of the WTO, the number of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises increased rapidly, from 2,994 (2007) to 4,621 (2009) Five years later, the number of Vietnamese... Vietnamese enterprises to enjoy more profits 3.2 State of inflencing factors to the development of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises 3.2.1 Internal factors 3.2.1.1 Human resources Vietnam