Vietnam private shoemaker blazes trail HO CHI MINH CITY - Biti's is hardly a household name compared with Nike or Reebok, but Vietnam's leading private footwear maker wants to change that. Le Phung Hao, deputy general director of Binh Tien Imex Corp Pte Ltd (Biti's), said the company was hunting for new export markets and upgrading production technology at a time when many firms are just trying to ride out the Asian crisis. He predicted local sales would grow 30 percent this year to 295 billion dong ($21.2 million) from last year with exports expected to rise 10 percent to 120 billion dong ($8.6 million). Last year local sales rose 40 percent and exports 10 percent, Hao said in an interview on Thursday. The group made a tidy profit of 15 billion dong ($1.1 million) last year and hopes for a similar result in 1999, Hao said. Those figures may seem small on a global scale but Biti's already exports its low-cost shoes, sandals and slippers to 35 countries including key footwear competitor China. Foreign donors have called Biti's a role model for communist Vietnam's nascent private sector, which has struggled to move beyond household commerce and compete with privileged state-run firms since economic reforms were adopted in 1986. ``We feel our growth is satisfactory despite the problems generated by the economic slowdown but we have to constantly improve our product and become more competitive and find new export destinations,'' Hao said. Penetrating the Chinese market was easier for Biti's because general director Vuu Khai Thanh is ethnic Chinese, along with some members of the management board, Hao said. Indeed, that also enabled the firm to learn about modern technology from Taiwan to make slippers after Biti's snared Vietnam's first private licence in 1989 for direct exportimport trade. Thanh eventually established a joint venture in 1991 with a Taiwan footwear maker that along with four other affiliates operates under the Biti's banner. Hao said key ingredients to the 17-year-old group's success were a thirst for foreign technology and training -- when Biti's decided to make sports shoes a few years ago it sent staff to South Korea to learn the ropes. Another important factor has been avoiding investments outside the core business. ``We have invested in new footwear products but we are going to stick to our strength which is making shoes,'' he said. While many Vietnamese exporters complain about the lack of Normal Trade Relations (NTR) with the United States, previously called Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, Hao said Biti's had no time to sit back and dream about the prospects of fully tapping the U.S. market. The firm already ships some shoes to the United States, albeit with a tariff of 65 percent. ``Obviously the U.S. has the potential to be giant market for Biti's but we cannot wait around for MFN. We must expand into other markets first,'' he said. With its high-profile in Vietnam and company logo on billboards throughout the country, Biti's has fallen prey to imitators, although Hao said Vietnamese consumers were becoming more concerned about quality and less likely to buy fakes. The whole Biti's group employs 4,600 people and makes more than 20 million pairs of shoes each year. Reuters - April 23, 1999.