Indian footwear and leather industry has potential to move up

Chandigarh, Dec 26 (UNI) The outlook for the footwear and leather industry in India is positive, with a marginal share of 2.44 per cent in global trade worth 97.606 billion dollars.

India has a significant potential for higher share in the global footwear and leather industry, a report titled 'The Indian Footwear and Leather Industry: Key Challenges and Opportunities', released by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Northern Region here today stated.

Mr Adesh Gupta, Chairman, CII Northern Region, while releasing the report urged government to treat footwear and leather industry at par with apparel industry to generate large scale employment and to achieve an estimated target of 12 billion dollars, of which seven billion dollars will be from export and five billion dollars will be from domestic market by the year 2012.

The report highlights that India is a noticeable player in the world in the footwear and leather market with its exports growing at eight per cent.

Multinational companies are looking at India, some of them have already entered India in different ways, the report said.

The Government is keen to support industry modernisation and help double exports by 2010, the report claimed.

However, a heavy dose of investment in manufacturing segment and training facilities was required to build up a large number of skilled workers and artisans.

Further, to sustain the growth trajectory in the sector, the report recommends a purposeful review of policies to rejuvenate this industry.

The specific recommendations include recognising footwear industry at par with the apparel Industry, substantial levels of investment in terms of modern machines and rationalisation of taxes on machinery and inputs, encouraging investment opportunities including FDI, removal of excise on all those component items that are covered under DFIS (allowing duty free imports of three per cent of FOB to exporters) policy approach to help build strong country brands in footwear, strengthening of infrastructure for skilled manpower, design and testing needs and to address raw material issues.

The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) has identified the sector as one of the twelve focus manufacturing sectors in terms of competitiveness and untapped potential in the country.

The sector is one of the top eight foreign exchange earners of the country worth Rs 10,000 crores per annum and accounting for 2.5 per cent of the global leather-related trade of Rs 387,200 crores. An estimated 15 per cent of total purchase of leading global brands in footwear, garments, leather goods and accessories, in Europe, and 10 per cent of global supply is outsourced from India, the report said.

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