Industry sources alsosaid the signing of a number of trade agreements like the Vietnam – EU FreeTrade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is ushering in chances of development for Vietnam,especially in attracting investment and boosting export to the markets in theEU and CPTPP members.
Lefaso presidentNguyen Duc Thuan affirmed that export activities of Vietnam’s leather industryare seeing a stable growth with positive signs for the second half of this yearand the years to come. The forecast for the world economy in 2018 is rosy, thatis why the demand in Vietnam’s major export markets like the US, the EU, China,Japan and the Republic of Korea will be better than that in 2017.
China is believed tocontinue the policy of reducing investment incentives in the industries ofgarment and leather to focus on high-tech ones, and orders for footwear andhandbags is expected to keep moving from China to Vietnam in anticipation ofchances created by those FTAs. However, Vietnam’s leather industry is nowfacing numerous difficulties like rising labor costs and low productivitycompared to other countries in the region. Especially, the Fourth IndustrialRevolution will also cause impact on the enterprises in the industry as theywill head to investing in modern machinery and reducing work hands.
The leather industry’sproduction is planned to turn out about 279 million pairs of footwear in thisyear, with 72 million pairs in the third quarter and 80 million pairs in thelast.
The first half of thisyear continued to witness a growth in the production by the industry, with 127.4million pairs produced, an increase of 5.1 percent year-on-year. They brought back 9.45billion USD to the country, rising by 8.4 percent compared to the same period lastyear. The export revenue of this kind of product is forecast to reach 19.5billion USD, or 10 percent higher than the figure recorded in 2017.-VNA