Vietnam reaped footwear export turnovers of 660 million U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 23.6 percent, according to sources from the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) on Thursday.

The Lefaso is encouraging footwear producers in Vietnam to diversify products, and produce more sport and cloth shoes, and slippers.

Vietnamese footwear producers and exporters are also intensifying tapping traditional markets such as the European Union (EU) and the United States, and boosting export to new ones with big purchasing power like Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Russia.

Vietnam has targeted to gain footwear export earnings of 3.9-4 billion dollars in 2007, up from nearly 3.6 billion dollars in 2006.

It has planned to reap footwear export revenues of 6.2-6.5 billion dollars in 2010.

Source: Xinhua