Footwear industry offers opportunities for China

Pakistan’s footwear exports achieved a double-digit growth. The footwear exports of the country in the first eight months of fiscal year 2021-22 reached $104 million, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%, and the export volume was $12.09 million, a year-on-year increase of 9.08%, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In addition to the increase in export value of its traditional products, shipments of leather footwear increased by 12.76%, canvas footwear and other footwear rose by as high as 181.89% and 40.58% respectively.

As the seventh-largest footwear producer, Pakistan accounts for more than 2.4% of global production however, its footwear contributes less than 1% to its global exports.

For a long time, Pakistan’s footwear industry was eager to enhance its global competitiveness and expand the scale of exports through diverse measures such as technological upgradation, import substitution of footwear material and improvement of the quality of labour.

Based on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) substantial improvement of infrastructure including power and transportation, Pakistan hopes to attract higher amount of Chinese shoe-makers.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that “footwear industry is one of the four areas of investment in Pakistan for Chinese companies.”

Zung Lan Trading (Private) Limited, a Chinese footwear company, CEO Chen Qianjiang, who has four years of business experience in Lahore, mentioned a set of models in an interview with China Economic Net.

THE ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE CHINA ECONOMIC NET

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2022.

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