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Footwear industry submits strategy
The Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) has submitted to the Government a strategy to develop the sector from now till 2020 with a vision to 2015 which focuses on the support and material industries.
Lefaso President Nguyen Duc Thuan said the strategy aims at ending the sector's dependence on foreign materials and technologies, and shifting from sub-contracting to direct contracting.
Under the strategy, the sector will need VND18.8 trillion (US$989 million) to produce shoe trees and footwear models, and expand the production of materials including leather and leatherette.
The plan is expected to help the sector earn $8.5 billion from exports by 2015 and $11 billion by 2020 by boosting the localisation rate to 65-75 per cent from the current 50 per cent.
Thuan explained that the strategy was developed because the sector has been suffering from a serious shortage of materials for many years due to the lack of a support industry.
The contry currently has only 30 enterprises, including five with foreign investment capital, producing tanned leather, the main material used by the footwear sector. These enterprises can only meet 30 per cent of the material demands of domestic footwear enterprises.
Thuan further explained that the sector has to cope with the EU's anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese footwear.
In an effort to boost exports, Lefaso has carried out many promotional activities, including hosting the 29th international conference of the Asian footwear sector, and the international fair for footwear materials and machines.
As customers are shifting their attention from China to Viet Nam, Vietnamese shoe makers currently have export orders until the first quarter of 2011.
In the first nine months of the year, the sector earned over $3.6 billion from exports, a year-on-year increase of 23 per cent. The figure is expected to surpass $5 billion by the end of the year.
vietnamnews
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