(Photo: baocongthuong)

Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, Secretary General of the Association said Vietnam’s major export markets have posted high growth, particularly the US, EU, Japan, and China. But she warned of challenges in 2019, including new conditions and regulations on product origin with 55% of domestic value share. Ms. Xuan: “We need to expand the production size and capacity to meet the new export requirements because small and medium sized enterprises used to implement small orders and focus only on domestic market. So, financial capacity and human resource need to be improved to seize new opportunities.”

The leather footwear sector’s target is 21.5 billion USD in export turnover next year and a 10% increase in production volume, given strong consumer demand in major markets. 

Ms. Xuan said footwear and bag orders will continue to shift from China to Vietnam thanks to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which will take effect in early 2019, and the EU-Vietnam FTA, also expected to become effective next year.