Provincial footwear industry takes initiatives to grasp opportunities

The province’s footwear sector reached nearly US$1.8billion in export value in the first eight months of 2018, up 15.4% compared to the corresponding period of last year or 12% of the province’s total export value. Noticeably, province-based footwear enterprises have sought sufficient orders for the whole year, so the sector’s export turnover this year is likely to obtain US$2.7billion-US$3billion.

Export market expanded

Over the past time, along with innovating production equipment, the province’s footwear sector paid attention to making materials from domestic resources, contributing to reducing their rate importing materials at present to 35%.

Production line of Dong Hung Joint Stock Company at Di An town-based Tan Dong Hiep A Industrial Park

Representative of provincial Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association said that domestic footwear products are now exported to nearly 100 countries and territories. Their main export markets are the U.S., Europe, China and Japan. In August alone, the total export turnover of domestic footwear products to the US accounted for 36% of the sector’s total export value, up 13.4%. The value to China and Japan saw a growth of 30% and 15.1% against the corresponding period last year …

Nguyen Quang Vu, Director of Nam Binh Co.Ltd. said that the leather, footwear and handbag sector of Vietnam in general and Binh Duong in particular has had a lot of potential in the US and European markets. The company has continued strongly investing in the state-of-the-art production technologies for expansion in the main export markets.

Focusing on improving productivity

The U.S. and China trade war has not concluded yet. This is a chance for Binh Duong’s export product groups to fly further. But, according to experts, province-based enterprises need to be proactive to grasp opportunities and anticipate the development of the trade war for appropriate adjustments to expand the export market and dominate the domestic market.

Representative of Duy Hung Footwear Co.Ltd. in Di An town said that in the current period, domestic enterprises need to make efforts in improving their labor productivity that must be at least 80%-90% compared to foreign ones for better competitiveness.

Provincial Department of Industry and Trade has so far suggested industries’ associations in the province to bring into full play their role in linking enterprises, thereby stabilizing existing export markets while seeking the new ones. They also need to improve their support capacity for members via seminars on special subjects and ones disseminating new legal documents. For enterprises, they need to be proactive to grasp their real situation for effective and timely solutions in order to well tap opportunities and limit challenges for stable development in the coming time…

Reported by Xuan Vi-Translated by K.T