A $20-million factory estab­lished for the production of shoes for the Ghanaian and international markets was inaugurated on Tuesday.

The project, initiated and funded by World Shoe Inc, an American-business organisa­tion, is located on the premises of Akosombo Industrial Com­pany Limited (AICL), formerly Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) in the Asuogyaman Dis­trict in the Eastern Region.

The factory, which has the capacity to produce five million EVA plastic shoes in a year, will employ about 1,050 people.

Inaugurating the factory, the Paramount Chief of the Akwamu Traditional Area, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, said the establishment of the factory would help create jobs for the youth.

That, he said, would help improve the socio-economic conditions in the traditional area and the standard of living of the people.

According to Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, the factory fitted into his vision of ad­dressing illiteracy and poverty in the Akwamu Traditional Area, stressing empowering the people of Akwamu economi­cally would help accelerate the development of the area.

The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), World Shoe Ghana Factory, Dr Emmanuel Manny Ohonme, said about $20 million had been invested in the factory.

He said the factory was expected to produce five million plastic shoes a year for the local and international market, such as America and Europe.

The President and CEO said the shoes were being produced from EVA plastic, which has health and anti-microbial prop­erties to promote the health of users.

In addition, Dr Ohonme said the shoes were produced from biodegradable materials which would degrade in fifteen years after the use of the shoe.

The President of World Shoe Limited, Dr Benjamin Kojo Taylor, in his remarks, said Ghana’s vision to industrialise the economy could be achieved through manufacturing.

He said Ghana offered a lot of potentials and opportunities and could venture into manufac­turing due to its educated work­force, growing youthful popula­tion and low cost of labour.

Dr Taylor said the shoe industry was worth billions of dollars and Ghana could harness same to build her economy cre­ate jobs for the youth as China, India and Vietnam had done.

He appealed to the govern­ment to use it purchasing power to support the company to thrive.

The Director of AICL, Dr Philip Osafo-Kwaako, said his outfit was diversifying from tex­tiles into other manufacturing products to make the company viable and profitable.