HCMC - A major partner has registered to buy 400 million surgical face masks, valued at US$52 million, from Garment 10 Corporation, a representative of the corporation told a working session with Party Secretary of Hanoi City Vuong Dinh Hue on April 7.

Than Duc Viet, general director of the corporation, noted that due to the impact of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in April, its orders will drop by 30% year-on-year, so the production of face masks is expected to partly make up for this drop. Apart from turning out fabric face masks, the corporation is also manufacturing surgical face masks, Thanh Nien newspaper reported. Besides the order for 400 million surgical face masks, a partner from the United States has also registered to buy 20 million fabric face masks, due for delivery within six weeks, and a German partner has placed an order for two million fabric face masks and six million surgical ones. However, the Government’s regulations limiting surgical face mask exports are likely to shrink the production and export activities of many firms like Garment 10 Corporation, stated Viet. Although some customers have placed orders for protective gear, the corporation has found it hard to produce them due to the lack of guidance on protective gear exports from the Government and standard laboratories. Speaking at the working session, Hue praised Garment 10 Corporation for its efforts, encouraging other firms to grasp any available economic opportunities amid the spread of the coronavirus to survive the crisis. Also, Hue assigned the Hanoi City government to work with other agencies and departments to remove any difficulties facing the firm.