Vietnam is targeting to earn some 24 billion to 26 billion U.S. dollars from leather and footwear exports by 2020, according to the Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). A MoIT’s revised plan for leather and footwear industry development until 2025, with a vision to 2035, stated that the industry will develop at a high speed to maintain its position as one of the country’s key export industries, reported local Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper on Monday. Under the plan, the sector’s annual production value is expected to grow by 11.62 percent in the 2016-2020 period, 8.87 percent in the 2021-2025 period and 6.04 percent in the 2026-2035 period. In addition, it will strive to achieve an annual export growth rate of 10-15 percent in the 2016-2020 period, 8-9 percent in the 2021-2025 period and 4-5 percent in the 2026-2035 period, with export revenues expected to reach around 24-26 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, some 35-38 billion U.S. dollars by 2025 and about 50-60 billion U.S. dollars by 2035. It also targets to raise the local content rate in footwear products to 45 percent by 2020, 47 percent by 2025 and 55 percent by 2035. In 2016, Vietnam earned 16.2 billion U.S. dollars from leather and footwear exports, accounting for 10 percent of the country’s total export value. The figure is forecast to hit 17.88 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, according to the ministry. China’s major property developers saw sales surge in the first quarter despite government controls on the real estate market, Shanghai Securities News reported Saturday. Twenty-one listed developers recorded 621.6 billion yuan (90.1 billion U.S. dollars) of combined sales in real estate contracts signed in Q1, up 69 percent year on year, the newspaper reported. China Vanke, the country’s leading residential developer, posted a 99.7-percent jump in sales, which totaled 150.3 billion yuan in the first quarter. Four companies saw their sales increase by more than 100 percent year on year. They included Longfor Properties, a Hong Kong-listed firm, whose sales soared 218 percent year on year to 43 billion yuan. Major developers with good reputations gained an advantage over smaller companies amid recent government curbs on the property sector, while some developers might have accelerated sales to lock in profits before the market cools later this year as expected, the newspaper said. The central government is trying to rein housing prices in major cities where huge demand and limited supply have pushed prices to record highs. Major cities are taking fresh measures including increased deposits for second-home buyers, adding to the slew of steps taken since October in dozens of cities to prevent home prices from rising out of control.
