90 CEOs of leading US brands jointly petitioned US President Joe Biden to speed up vaccine aid to Vietnam
[VITAS] On Aug 132021, 90 CEOs of leading US brands such as Adidas, Coach, Gap, Hanebrands, Nike, VF, Under Amour ... signed a joint letter petitioning US President Joe Biden to increase speed up vaccine aid to Vietnam. The letter emphasizes that Vietnam is an important economic partner and supply chain of the United States, currently the second largest supplier of apparel and footwear to the US market, which is experiencing an outbreak of the virus seriously. The connection between Vietnam's manufacturing industries in the supply role for goods manufacturing industries which related employing 3 million workers in the United States, depends directly and greatly on the "health" of Vietnamese industry by its integrity from the value chain. Therefore, if Vietnam's key industrial sectors can be restored quickly, through the vaccine supply program, it will minimize the effects that are directly affecting the risk of supply chain disruption in Vietnam. The fields and industries are related to the US market and businesses.
These brands are all members of the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), an association with more than 1,000 members who are brands, businesses and organizations operating in the field of US textiles, apparel and footwear.
Hoang Ngoc Anh, General Secretary of VITAS shared, responding to the call of VITAS and LEFASO, earlier on June 9, 2021, AAFA sent the first letter to President Biden to call on the administration of President Biden for sharing vaccines with key partner countries in the US textile and footwear supply chain, including Vietnam. On July 27, 2021, AAFA continued to send 02 letters to President Biden and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to continue asking the US government to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam, repeatedly emphasizing Vietnam's role in the supply chain of goods for the US market, and at the same time recommending the Vietnamese government to take actions to respond to Covid.
On August 10, 2021, VITAS-LEFASO had a zoom meeting with members of AAFA to discuss how to advocate for vaccines and provide more medical support for Vietnam, to have recovery solutions the production of factories step-by-step. Ms. Hoang Ngoc Anh shared, “Brands are very worried about the risk of orders and supply chains being disrupted in the last months of the year when vaccines have not arrived on time. The distance has seriously affected the return to production when the 3 on-site implementation is not feasible for enterprises using a large number of workers.” Ms. Anh has suggested that brands take actions to coordinate with businesses to overcome the pandemic, flexibly link with businesses in the Middle and Northern regions to fulfill immediate orders, share experiences on increasing labor productivity in factories in the context of labor reduction and further work together to solve the problem of the ongoing global container crisis.
We hope that during the high-level meeting between US Vice President Haris and Vietnamese Government leaders at the end of August, coordinated initiatives to preserve the health of Vietnam and the US supply chain will be discussed in detail for fast and effective action in September.
Full text of Calling Letters from 90 CEOs is available HERE (see attached files)
1. Refer to AAFA's letter calling for June 2021: http://www.vietnamtextile.org.vn/aafa-keu-goi-tong-thong-biden-chia-se-vac-xin-covid-19-cho-cac-doi-tac_p1_1-1_2-1_3-643_4-5401_9-2_11-10_12-1_13-312.html
2. And in July 2021 here http://www.vietnamtextile.org.vn/aafa-keu-goi-tong-thong-biden-va-thu-tuong-pham-minh-chinh-ho-tro-vac_p1_1-1_2-1_3-742_4-5522_9-2_11-10_12-1_13-329.html
