Leather and footwear industry of Uzbekistan intends to produce output worth $1.68 billion in the next four years.
This would rank the country among the CIS leaders in the production of footwear and leather goods. At the same time, it is planned to export significant lots of manufactured goods to neighboring countries, as well as expand exports to Russia, Turkey and China, and explore new markets, including the European Union nations.
New challenges for the industry have been identified by the recently developed and approved ‘Program of measures on the further development of the leather and footwear industry for 2020’. It envisages the construction of new manufactures of promising export-oriented goods. However, it is feasible through channeling foreign investments and technologies. Currently, the Uzbek side is looking into options to deepen relations with businessmen from Russia, China and Turkey, who have a solid experience in this field.
The industry is also working over some projects with several European business partners, including those from Italy, France and Spain.
In the next four years, it is planned to produce a total of over 29.1 million pairs of shoes, 2.99 billion square decimeters of leather, and various leather goods for $35.6 million. Meanwhile, the estimates may be significantly exceeded in case of effective use of the capacities available.
To date, the Uzbek side has already developed several investment projects with the involvement of local and foreign investors. For example, it is planned to implement 59 projects totaling $76.5 million by 2020. Crucially, 37 of them will be focused on the establishment of new capacities (about $60 million), and the rest 22 projects will envisage the modernization and reconstruction of existing facilities (over $16 million).
The overhaul of the leather factory ‘MM Goodwill’ costing over $1 million is a successful example of investment project this year. The investments have enabled the company to launch additional processing capacity of 3 million square decimeters of leather raw materials.
The industry has scheduled the implementation of 11 investment projects totaling $6.7 million, and creation of 385 jobs next year.
