Government Shoe Companies Work Hard Together

The industry has encountered unprecedented difficulties, but the advantages and opportunities still exist in our correspondent Yu Na report: 2008 the world footwear development forum was held in Houjie, Dongguan recently.

Unlike the past, this forum has first gathered the world's largest traders, footwear associations and domestic experts for the first time to explore the huge issues facing the development of footwear industry.

Facing the new challenges at home and abroad, Wang Ying, Secretary General of the China Light Industry Crafts Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, said at the Forum: "China's footwear industry has encountered unprecedented difficulties and entered a truly severe winter after more than 20 years of rapid development."

Internationally, the financial tsunami swept the global economy, anti-dumping and other trade protection measures frequently, and the international economic and trade environment deteriorated day by day.

With the spread of the financial crisis to the real economy, the Great Depression of the international consumer market has affected the export of enterprises, especially the export of footwear industry, which is the main source of orders in Europe and the United States.

In addition, foreign-funded enterprises are strongly encroaching on the Chinese market, bringing more intense competition for survival to China's local shoe companies.

At home, enterprises are facing a series of problems such as RMB appreciation, labor costs rising, raw material prices rising, tax rebate rate reduction, processing trade policy adjustment, and deep-seated problems and contradictions in the industrial structure.

It is reported that, due to the sharp reduction in foreign orders in recent years, many shoe manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta are facing a dilemma that no single connection can be reached, and thousands of shoe enterprises are closed or moved out.

According to statistics of Fujian Putian industry and Commerce Bureau, nearly 100 enterprises in Putian area have failed.

Most medium-sized enterprises say that this year is not to seek development but to survive, and to control risks through layoffs and scale reduction.

Shoe companies from several regions are responding. If the situation continues to the end of the year, a group of medium-sized enterprises will be closed down.

Li Yuzhong, vice chairman of the China Leather Association, said that although the footwear industry is facing unprecedented challenges, it is undeniable that the domestic and international shoe market is still a market with strong demand in the domestic market of 800 million pairs of shoes.

China's footwear industry has strong capacity and competitiveness. It is difficult for major markets such as the US, Europe and Japan to find other import channels in a short time, and pfer huge orders to other countries. China will still occupy large markets.

According to the statistics of Global trade statistics, the current export volume of footwear countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and India is about 500 million pairs, 160 million pairs, 150 million pairs and 100 million pairs. Obviously, it is difficult to undertake the output of China's annual output of about 10 billion 400 million pairs in the short term.

Dr.FerencSchme, a former head of the Ministry of industry and development of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, said that China's footwear industry is now overly dependent on the United States, but 50% of its shoes should be found in China's domestic market.

According to the recent research report released by relevant agencies in China's footwear industry, the per capita consumption of footwear in China continues to grow. It is estimated that by 2012, Chinese residents will buy 2.3 pairs of shoes on average each year, and this figure is only 1.8 pairs in 2006, and it is bold to predict that China's domestic market with nearly 800 million pairs of shoes will be pregnant every year.

At present, China's footwear exports show a downward trend in volume.

Statistics show that in the first half of this year, Guangdong's footwear exports amounted to US $5 billion 240 million, an increase of 11.99% over the same period last year, accounting for 38.93% of the total export volume of footwear in the whole country, while the unit price increased by 26.05% over the same period.

In the three quarter of this year, Guangdong's footwear exports remained at a 17% growth rate.

This trend shows that the added value of some footwear products has increased and has strong competitiveness.

The cooperation and innovation of government and enterprises need to be spent over the winter. Long Yongtu, Secretary General of the Boao forum, thinks that the most important thing is "confidence, cooperation and responsibility" in analyzing the current situation of China's footwear industry.

He said that although the situation is grim, enterprises still need to be confident that China has many advantages in coping with the financial crisis, such as ample foreign exchange reserves, low debt ratio and basically no liberalization of the capital market, and the state is constantly introducing measures to help enterprises tide over difficulties.

In addition, we must strengthen the cooperation between the compulsory footwear industry and the related industries outside the industry.

In the first half of this year, Guangdong actively responded to the difficulties at home and abroad, and all sides made joint efforts to promote the pformation of the export mode of footwear industry, the pformation of enterprise operation and the upgrading of product levels, and achieved good results.

Wang Shengpei, President of Dongguan leather and Footwear Association, said: "at this time, the upgrading of enterprises will be more urgent. The government's support and assistance to enterprises, including tax rebates, now has 1 billion of Dongguan's government funds to support corporate loans. I believe there are still ways to tide over the difficulties."

At the forum, participants in the political and business circles agreed that in the face of the crisis, the only way for enterprises to innovate is a way out, including product innovation, business model innovation and sales channel innovation, and cooperation within the industry is indispensable.

Liang Yaowen, director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of foreign trade and economic cooperation, also believes that the core competitiveness of the footwear industry in Guangdong lies in its independent innovation.

As for how to innovate, Long Guoqiang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Research of the State Council Development Research Center, proposed that small and medium-sized enterprises should join together to create brands and start from the domestic market; Mr.YrjoGORSKI, chairman of the European footwear purchasing Federation, gave the trick: the traditional two seasons of a year can not meet the needs of consumers, and enterprises can study and develop the four seasons or six seasons a year, and even produce a series of shoes every month to meet the market demand.