The Chinese shoe manufacting giant, Aokang group, has revealed plans to invite African footwear associations and enterprises to Wenzhou, to explore mutual areas of interest.
The event follows the Sino-Africa cooperation Forum which attracted the participation of over 150 Chinese and 250 African enterprises. At that gathering, the Chinese Premier, Mr. Wen Jia Bao made a speech and the premier of Ethiopia met Mr. Wang zhen tao, President of Aokang group, as well as four other leading footwear entrepreneurs.
As the representative of China’s shoe industry at the forum, Mr. Wang zhen Tao expressed the wishes of China’s enterprises to cooperate with African ventures to jointly develop the global market. He said Aokang group could help train Ethiopian footwear technicians free of charge and that with the involvement of other enterprises, a number of African enterprises would be visiting Wenzhou next month.
Foreign investment, especially from Taiwan, played an important role in the Wenzhou economy, Mr Wang zhen Tao continued. To date, 309 projects involving Taiwanese investors were in place in the city, representing a total investment of $668 million. Wenzhou was now second only to Hong Kong in terms of attracting foreign investment, the premier said. And despite of the Iraq war and SARS outbreak, 84 large Taiwan enterprises in Wenzhou had made solid progress in 2003.
Around 300 Wenzhou-based shoe enterprises, distributed in different provinces in North China gathered in Beijing at the end of last month to form a new footwear industry Association in the city for the purpose of sharing information and establishing a ‘Wenzhou’ brand.
