HCM City (VNA) - To capitaliseon the global demand for medical protective equipment, Vietnamese companiesneed to proactively study markets, demand and quality standards, experts havesaid.

The demand for personal protectiveequipment and other medical supplies is growing in several European andAmerican countries as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, providing anopportunity for Vietnamese businesses.

Deputy Director of the Investment and TradePromotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City Cao Thi Phi Van told a recent seminarin the city that the garment industry was going through an unprecedented crisisdue to COVID-19 but the pandemic also brought a significant opportunity for Vietnamto become the world’s face mask factory.

Many garment producers hit hard by thepandemic have switched to producing masks.

The demand for masks, protective equipmentand medical gloves in the EU, the US and many other countries is very highwhereas supply in the market is low because many factories have had to shutdown to contain the spread of the disease.

But with COVID-19 contained to a great extentin Vietnam, the country’s garment industry has moved into recovery mode and isstepping up production. Some have received export orders worth millionsof dollars.

Garment 10 Corporation Joint Stock Companysaid it has received orders for 400 million medical face masks from the USworth 52 million USD, 20 million cloth masks from another US partner and twomillion cloth masks and six million medical face masks from a German partner.

With domestic demand fully met and surgingdemand in other countries, enterprises are keen on exports, but it is a uniqueproduct with medical standards to meet, and so many businesses have difficultyexporting, especially to the US and EU, Van said.

Nguyen Tran Khanh Hoang, CEO of Super CargoService Company, an international logistics firm, said the difficulties mostexporters of medical protective equipment currently face are their inability tofurnish the documents required for customs clearance, not knowing theimport process in destination markets, the lack of transportation options, andhigh logistics costs.

Vietnamese businesses have no experience inexporting medical protective equipment, and so are not familiar with therequirements, leading to cases where they have shipped goods without necessarydocuments.

Transportation has been disrupted in manyareas, making it difficult for businesses to ship their products or very costly.

Pham Thi Hoang Oanh, CEO of Indochine VinaTrade Promotion Co., LTd, said to take advantage of the opportunity to exportmedical protective equipment, businesses need to research information related toimport markets./.