China: CLIA maps out a five-year plan for the leather industry

China Leather Industry Association has mapped out a five-year plan for the country’s leather industry, empahsizing on technologies as a way to accelerate the transformation of development.

At the recent CLIA annual conference, the Association president Zhang Shuhua said the economic situation is the most complicated for the industry, although production, foreign trade and investment in the industry have continued recovering, there are still major issues that will hinder growth such as the industrial structure and low-quality growth. In this light, it is time for the industry for changes.

Zhang pointed out that for the next five years, the industry has to upgrade their technologies, reduce outdated production capacity, and look into sustainable solutions in order to create a resource-conserving, environment-friendly industry. 

She also mentioned some development targets for the next five years, including maintaining a 10% of annual growth in output value; maintaining a 5% growth in annual export value; creating three to five brands that will get famous and be recognized worldwide; reducing the pollutants of COD by 10% annually; reducing the number of enterprises in the industry and increasing the proportion of output value generated by large-scaled companies from 49% in 2009 to 55%.