Taiwan firm HuaLi builds $42 mln factory in central Vietnam

Taiwan’s HuaLi Group kicked off the construction of a $42 million footwear factory in Thanh Hoa province on Monday.

The 12.2-hectare factory, named Alivia, is set to enter operation in the first quarter of 2024, employing 8,000 people and producing six million products a year. The project aims to serve export markets, HuaLi chairman Chang Tsung Yuan said at the construction ceremony.

HuaLi Group has become an integral part of Thanh Hoa province’s economy with investment of nearly $1 billion over a decade, said Do Trong Hung, chief of Thanh Hoa province's Party Committee, at a meeting with Chang Tsung Yuan on the sidelines of the event.

Alivia is HuaLi Group’s latest project in Thanh Hoa, in addition to its 16 operating factories in the province, raising the group’s employment to 120,000 people, the provincial leader added.

Hung also urged the firm, with a global capacity of 220 million products a year, to speed up the progress of investing in more plants in the province's Hau Loc and Trieu Son districts, while local authorities strive to accompany the firm's development.

Footwear is a major export product of Vietnam. In the first seven months of this year, the country recorded an export revenue of $194.73 billion, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO). Footwear, with a figure of $11.67 billion, was the fifth highest-export sector.

Vietnam’s index of industrial production (IIP) decreased 0.7% year-on-year in Jan-July due to prolonged economic headwinds and weak demand worldwide, the GSO reported. Thanh Hoa outperformed the country’s average as its IIP grew 7.74%, driven by the mining sector going up 15.35%, manufacturing-processing up 5.94%, and others.