Currently, the industry faces the challenge of reducing the production of semi-finished goods and increasing the output of finished ones with higher added value. To this end, it is essential to fashion a system for training qualified personnel, and generate new production technologies.
Challenges faced by the Uzbek shoe industry still constitute a high share of imports on the market, including smuggled and counterfeit goods. Taking into account such a situation, the association Uzbekcharmpoyabzali, together with the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Economy, considers the proposal to set up a network of specialized professional colleges in the regions of the country.
The opening of such educational institutions is considered by means of re-orienting the existing colleges. They will be provided with logistical, personnel and methodological support. At the same time, the entire training process is planned in direct connection with the industry’s enterprises. Such an approach should be a good basis for solving personnel issues.
Today, the structure of the association Uzbekcharmpoyabzali operates more than a hundred enterprises. Over the past few years, the production of more than three hundred new models of footwear and seventy kinds of leather and haberdashery products has been set up. The goods are exported mainly to China, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Russia and other CIS countries.
In the near future, the country will create the first leather and footwear industrial cluster in history. Partnering in this project will be Turkish companies. A significant part of the produced goods are to be exported to CIS countries, as well as to Europe.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
