Footwear producers have thrived since the second quarter. Photo baohaiquan.vn

HA NOI — Viet Nam's footwear exports are well on track to top US$9 billion this year, according to the Viet Nam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso).

Over the first half of this year, earnings from footwear exports totalled about $4 billion, a 14 per cent increase over the same period a year ago or 6.5 per cent of the country's total export turnover, Lefaso said.

The US remained the country's most lucrative market with revenue hitting $1.27 billion (up 21 per cent year-on-year), followed by the UK with $206.12 million (up 6.5 per cent), Belgium with $250.45 million (up 23 per cent) and Germany with $197.51 million (up 5 per cent).

Footwear producers have thrived since the second quarter, and see increasing export orders from now to the year-end, Lefaso said.

According to the association, if successfully negotiated, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would bring about opportunities for the Vietnamese leather and footwear industry to penetrate a large market.

The association added that Viet Nam's leather and footwear products would enjoy preferential tax of zero per cent, reduced from the current 14.3 per cent.

This would help Vietnamese shoe enterprises to increase their competitiveness over other major shoe exporters that were not TPP members.

However, the association said the TPP would also bring about challenges for Viet Nam's shoes industry, as the agreement had a compulsory localisation rate for raw materials.

Domestic businesses have a low localisation rate of 40 per cent, as the industry depends highly on imported materials.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade encouraged footwear businesses to increase their investment in material production and modern and environmentally friendly technologies. — VNS