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 18.8
trillion VND (989 million USD) 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 USD from exports by 2015 and 11 billion USD by 2020 by
boosting the localisation rate to 65-75 percent from the current 50
percent.
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 country 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 percent
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 Vietnam , 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 USD from exports, a year-on-year increase of 23 percent. The
figure is expected to surpass 5 billion USD by the end of the year./.
