Italian firms coming to Agra

Footwear components park to be set up at Rs 16 cr

After years of lagging behind in foreign trade and in collaborating, the ailing footwear industry of Agra is set to make a turnaround, with Italian footwear component companies showing interest in the Footwear Components Park, being set up in Agra by the central Council of Leather Exports, at Rs 16 crore.

A nine-member delegation of Italian footwear components manufacturers met the Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber (AFMEC) officials yesterday at the Hotel Holiday Inn to discuss the possibilities of setting up shop at the Agra footwear park. This will be chiefly by Italian companies interested in setting up footwear-manufacturing units in India.

Talking to Business Standard, Puran Dawar, managing partner, Dawar Footwear Industries, and chairman and managing director of Agra Footwear Infrastructure Development Company (engaged in the construction of the park on Agra-Delhi highway), said the main target of this conference was to develop a business model for the transfer of technology and trends from Italy to India while exporting the finished product from India to Italy and the rest of the Europe, where the Indian footwear industry was yet to make a dent.

He said the chamber members talked of the initiatives by the Agra footwear industry before delegates from Germany, Spain, and Italy.

The presentations also included the project of the footwear park proposed to be constructed in Agra during the Tenth Five-Year Plan. This project encouraged the Italian delegates to get a first-hand experience of the Agra footwear industry.

He said the Italian companies had agreed to buy out a significant part of the 25 per cent section left at the Agra footwear park for foreign units, which was a good sign for the footwear industry of Agra.

He said in the first phase, 58 domestic footwear units had proposed to set up units at the footwear park and efforts were also under way to get this park classified as a "special export park" and to get the ministry of commerce to give the shoe manufacturers and exporters the advantage of duty drawbacks and tax rebates on footwear export.

He said besides the accessory-manufacturing units, the park would contain a footwear research and development centre and a modern shoe-testing laboratory, to be established at Rs 2 crore, with certifications from Germany and the UK, providing international standard quality-testing facilities to the footwear manufacturers.

With the technology transfer from the Italian collaborators, the facilities available at the Agra footwear park would soon be of international standards.

Notably, the Agra shoe industry manufactures almost 300,000 pairs of shoes and other kinds of footwear every day both in the organised and unorganised sectors, which meet 60 per cent of the domestic footwear requirements and 40 per cent of the international footwear exports from India.