Vietnam is likely to gain footwear export earnings of around 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, up from over 3 billion dollars in 2005, the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) said on Tuesday.

While Vietnam's footwear exports to the EU decrease slightly this year due to the EU's placement of anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese leather-upper shoes, exports to the United States rises considerably, the association said, noting that turnovers Vietnam gained from shipping footwear to the U.S. market in the first 10 months surged nearly 40 percent compared with the same period last year.

The Lefaso is encouraging footwear producers in Vietnam to diversify products and penetrate into potential markets. South Africa spent 29.5 million dollars importing Vietnamese footwear, mainly leather or cloth-uppper shoes, tennis shoes and basket ball shoes, in the first 11 months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 48 percent.

Vietnam earned 3.2 billion dollars from exporting footwear between January and November, posting a year-on-year increase of 19.3 percent, the association said.

Source: Xinhua