16th footwear exhibition begins at Bhrikuti Mandap

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Jan. 6: The 16th International Footwear Industrial Exhibition-2023 kicked off at Bhrikuti Mandap exhibition centre since Thursday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari inaugurated the three-day exhibition organised by Footwear Manufacturer’s Association of Nepal with the aim of promoting the domestic footwear at home and abroad through business to business.

This is a fist kind of international-level exhibition organised by the Association by inviting international buyers, raw material and technology supplies required for the footwear industry. Till the 15th edition, Footwear Expo has focused only on domestic consumers and entrepreneurs.

Inaugurating the expo, President Bhandari stressed on the need for increasing domestic production through the optimum use of available domestic resources to make the country self-reliant and prosperous.

“Widening trade deficit of the country can be reduced by increasing the domestic production and export as well. Footwear industry can play a significant role in this regard,” she said.

According to the President, government, private sector and entrepreneurs had equal roles and responsibilities to increase investment in the comparative advantage sector and increase products as well.

“High level of coordination and cooperation is a must for achieving higher economic growth. This type of expo can help to enhance relations between government and private sector and also increase export,” she said. According to her, private sector and the businessmen should grab the opportunities by diversifying the products as per the consumers’ choice in the global competitive market. Minister without portfolio Damodar Bhandari assured that the government was ready to cooperate with private sector for economic development. “There are challenges in the national economy. So, the government will address the demands raised by the private sector to overcome the challenges seen in the economy,” he said.

He said that the government had given due priority to control cross-border illegal trade taking place in Nepal-India border.

President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shekhar Golchha said that the footwear industry of Nepal was showing high potential in export as it is a high value-added product. Talking about the recently revised working capital loan guidelines, he said amendment to the provision of working capital loan guidelines was welcome but it is a must to address the liquidity crunch and high interest rate to improve the country's economy. Similarly, President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce Rajendra Malla stressed on the need of controlling the illegal trade taking place on the border. “Due to illegal trade, the government is losing huge amount of revenue and also the competitiveness of businessmen who are doing business in a fair manner is sapped,” he said.

President of Footwear Manufacturer’s Association of Nepal Nani Raj Ghimire asked the government to facilitate the promotion of local production of footwear in the international market.

“We organised an international-level exhibition this year to encourage local entrepreneurs to increase their production and also promote goods in the international arena,” he said. Local production of footwear covers around 55 per cent of the local market.

According to the organiser, there are 40 stalls of foreign companies related to raw materials, technologies and machineries and 90 stalls of local footwear companies.