Belarus: Koreans to invest in footwear and leather enterprise |
The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has called for a reversal in the decline in the country’s footwear manufacturing industry that has seen production fall from 16 million to 13 million pairs of shoes per year over the last 10 years while imports have risen tenfold.
The Belarussian Telegraph Agency reported that he backed the idea to set up a major leatherworking and fur enterprise, at a government session held to discuss the development of the leather and footwear industries. A Korean company has already shown an interest in investing in the enterprise and is willing to build or upgrade a tannery in Belarus. “By doing it, we will be able to create a leatherworking enterprise with available raw materials and components. Then we will reduce footwear imports by roughly 70%,” said Vitebsk Oblast governor Alexander Kosinets. Mr Kosinets also said that by late 2015 the output of footwear companies Marko and Belwest could reach 12 million pair, or twice as much as the present figure. Zdroj: www.footwear.biz (21/11/2012) |