PHILIPPINES
September 1st, 2002
BY MARK ROWEAN INFLUX of cheap products from China is threatening the city of Marikina's title as the shoe capital of the Philippines. The cheap goods have pushed the city's shoe industry, which employs about 14,000 people and was one of the top five shoe exporters in Asia, to the brink of collapse. Labour costs in the Philippines are five times higher than in China, where it is US$1 to US$1.25 a day. Local shoe manufacturers incur higher overheads because they import their raw leather. The industry has lost about 70 per cent of its export market to China in the ...
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