Traditional shoemaking industry finds new approaches

According to statistics, shoemaking industry’s export volume tripled to $4.7 billion in 2011 from just $170 million in 1999. Wenzhou is located in Zhejiang province and it has advanced shoemaking technology and the city has contributed a lot in shoemaking and export to foreign countries. The shoe industry in Wenzhou, the hub of China’s private economy, demonstrates as an example of the nation’s rise over the past 30 years as a world factory and upgrading vanguard. Compared with three decades ago, Wenzhou’s shoemakers had made records of shoes export and remained the competitiveness for many years as the initial advantages — low labor costs, a favorable foreign exchange rate and ample resources, which may have changed nowadays. rnDuring the development, the shoe industry here in Wenzhou has significantly consolidated over the past decade. Many manufacturers are introducing leading edge technology or establishing their own brand for further development, some manufacturers may have collapsed since they lack funds to renovate the technologies or improve brand fame. Now favorable policies have been issued out since some state owned banks are allowed to give small loans to such manufacturers at lower interest rates. Illegal loans to these manufacturers will be curbed at some extent. In fact, industry restructuring and upgrading is one of the country’s top economic priorities during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). To meet the trend, B2B e-business platforms have emerged on the market to help SMEs to get more orders from international buyer and complete the whole process on the platform with value-added service. IBUonline is a B2B foreign trade platform, which offers integrated services so that foreign trade can be completed on the platform in one-stop mode.