Do Kim Lang, deputy head of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that the influx of handicraft orders to Vietnam are attributed to the impact of China’s minimum wage increase program, leading to a rise in production costs.

In addition, long time delivery and tough requirements of orders forced importers from Australia and Japan to leave China and eye Vietnam, Lang said.

Le Ba Ngoc, general secretary of the Vietnam Handicraft Exporting Association (Vietcraft) in turn said that in fact, importers have placed increased trust in the quality of Vietnamese handicrafts.

In recent years, local businesses selected high-end and mid-end market segments to devise investment strategies and sharpen competitiveness to improve product quality and promote Vietnamese handicrafts to the world.