Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade has approved a master plan to develop Vietnam’s leather and footwear industry through 2020 with a vision to 2025. 

Under the plan, the leather and footwear industry will enter a new development period with orientations and targets to ensure sustainable development.

The sector will continue to boost exports, hold the lion’s share of the domestic market, develop the production of input materials and supporting industries, and  become more deeply engaged in the value added chain of the world market in order to raise labour productivity and economic efficiency.

Focus will be also on integrating into the regional and international economies and changing the production model, from manufacturing for export to self production and business.

The major target for 2020 is to turn leather and footwear into a key export industry in the national economy, continue to be among the world’s leading leather and footwear producers and exporters, and create more well-paid jobs with greater social responsibility for workers and increasing number of trained workers.

The sector’s projected growth target is for export turnover of US$9.1 billion by 2015, US$14.5 billion by 2020 and US$21 billion by 2025.

Increasing the locally-made proportion of different products is one of primary issues of concern in the process of creating the master plan for 2020, with a vision to 2025. The proportion of locally-made materials will reach 60-65 percent by 2015, 70-80 percent by 2020 and 80-85 percent by 2025.

Building industrial parks to produce leather and footwear materials to sharpen its competitiveness and developing more centers for vocational training, scientific and technological research, quarantine, trade promotion and fashion are long-term goals for the sector’s steady development.

Special attention will also be paid to the possibility of designing products and developing human resources for the leather and footwear sector as well as the fashion sector. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will direct the leather and footwear sector to work together with the garment and textile sector and other relevant sectors to give fresh impetus to developing the Vietnamese fashion industry in major urban areas and cities.

Under the plan until 2020, footwear will remain the sector’s key product but priority will also be given to producing high-quality fashionable shoes, suitcases, hand bags and wallets to penetrate new, high-class and domestic markets. The sector will apply advanced and environmentally friendly technologies to produce tanned leather. Investment for producing tanned leather will go along with developing herds of cattle to reduce the import surplus and boost production.

By 2020, total production value is predicted to hit 1.6 billion pairs of footwear, 300 million suitcases, briefcases, handbags and wallets, and 63,000 tonnes of hard tanned leather.

Under the zoning plan for the sector’s development, there will be four major regions targeted, including the Red River Delta, the southeastern region, the north-central and coastal central region, and the Mekong River Delta.

The total investment required for the 2011-2020 period will be VND 59,570 billion of which, 43 percent will come  from domestic sources and 57 percent from foreign investment.