Wenzhou Shoe Making And Other Industrial Clusters Are Facing Challenges And Opportunities.

Zhejiang Wenzhou has formed more than 30 light industrial clusters, which has greatly improved the competitiveness of the industry and promoted the rapid development of the local regional economy.

However, under the new economic situation, Wenzhou's industrial cluster which has achieved economic take-off has also encountered unprecedented challenges.

These industrial clusters are not only a major feature of Wenzhou's regional economy, but also an advantage of the rapid development of Wenzhou's regional economy.

The total industrial output value of Wenzhou city was only 1 billion 110 million yuan in 1978. In 2007, the total industrial output value of above scale reached 329 billion 590 million yuan, and industrial cluster was the main support for the rapid growth of total economic volume.

Most of the industries in Wenzhou are light industry. Due to the development of cluster, the industry is fully subdivided and the degree of social division and cooperation is high, which makes the relatively low technology and cost requirements lower.

For example, a simple product such as spectacles is subdivided into frames, lenses, electroplating and other accessories in Wenzhou, which are processed by different enterprises. This makes the technical requirements simpler, less cost input and easier to enter the business.

Therefore, the enthusiasm of Wenzhou people to start businesses is high, and the number of small and medium enterprises is much higher, which accelerates the development of regional economy.

In the industrial cluster, the industry is fully subdivided, each component of a product is processed by several enterprises, and the processing technology is more professional.

This division of labor and cooperation, through market selection, forces enterprises engaged in parts processing to do everything possible to improve technological level and innovate technology.

On the one hand, the specialized market formed by industrial clustering can enable enterprises to get market information in time, understand the popular colors and styles of products in the domestic and international markets, and adjust their production.

On the other hand, the industrial cluster has formed the industrial chain of production socialization division of labor and cooperation, which can greatly reduce the cost of product development, operation and management, capital investment and other aspects, so as to get the low price advantage of the product.

With the improvement of industrial clusters, the industry has gained more and more honorary titles. The state authorities have named 33 industrial production bases in Wenzhou.

Wenzhou's industrial clusters have also created a number of brands. The city already has 32 well-known trademarks in China, 32 famous brand products in China, 136 national inspection free products, and 16 enterprise groups are among the top 500 of the first Chinese enterprise groups.

Many light industries in Wenzhou have a high market share, such as low voltage appliances occupy more than 30% of the domestic market share, leather shoes domestic market share of 20%, Western-style clothes domestic market share 10%, metal lighters domestic market share 95%, international market share 70%, glasses country market share 80%.

Most enterprises lack the ability of independent innovation. Technological innovation, management innovation and marketing innovation (including brand innovation) are not enough. The products are of low quality, low technology content and low added value.

Especially in traditional industries, there are few investment, simple technology, easy imitation of products, frequent investment and blind production.

Many industries have a surplus of production capacity, lack of the advantages of differentiation and competition and the rules of collective action, showing the situation of "a thousand horse and a horse over a single tree bridge".

A survey conducted by the local economic and trade system shows that "excessive competition in the industry" is the main problem affecting development, accounting for 39.5% of the surveyed enterprises.

The direct consequence of excessive competition is the difficulty of production and operation and the low profit rate of the industry, which will affect the subsequent development capability of the enterprises, which will lead to atrophy and demise in severe cases.

For example, Wenzhou lamps and lanterns owned nearly 2000 enterprises and more than 10 thousand varieties, and the total industrial output value was nearly 3 billion yuan.

Many industrial clusters in Wenzhou regard the international market as the main market of leading products.

However, as the main body of export, enterprises are basically at the bottom of the international vertical division of labor. Although many labor-intensive industries have strong international competitiveness, they mainly rely on running volume and rely too much on low price competition.

Long term low price competition not only affects the bargaining power and export efficiency of foreign businessmen, but also is repeatedly suppressed by international trade friction.

The further implementation of the export oriented strategy is also squeezed by lower labor costs and countries and regions.

In particular, export disorderly phenomenon is prominent, many enterprises compete for export orders at the expense of each other.

The number of international trade frictions in Wenzhou is the highest in the country due to the low price volume and the irregular export order.

The impact of RMB appreciation on the US dollar and the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States made Wenzhou's foreign trade enterprises, which were originally not profitable, fall into low profits, financial difficulties and "repudiation".

At present, governments at all levels in Zhejiang and Wenzhou have paid more attention to promoting the development of industrial clusters, and some supportive policies and measures have been adopted.

However, the research on how to promote the development of industrial clusters is not deep enough. The public policy framework is not clear enough, and the supporting measures are not enough.

Wenzhou has yet to have special plans for developing industrial clusters, and has yet to form a strong legal protection and support policy system. We need to make substantive breakthroughs in order to form a more perfect system environment.

In addition, there are environmental problems and safety problems in some industrial clusters, such as tanning in Pingyang's water head and regenerated cotton in Cangnan.

At present, per capita cultivated land in Wenzhou is only 0.02 hectares. With the development of market economy and the acceleration of urbanization, less and less land can be used for industrial development.

Nowadays, the land requisition for enterprises is RMB 230 million yuan per hectare. It is difficult to get the index. It is very difficult for small and medium enterprises, especially small businesses, to get a piece of land.

In addition, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Wenzhou are developed on the basis of family workshops and family factories. The concept and management level of business owners can not keep up with the requirements of economic development. A large number of enterprises are backward in mechanism, unable to attract talents, unable to retain talents, and difficult to recruit workers.

At the same time, 20% of Wenzhou's small and medium-sized enterprises have been shut down and semi shut down this year. Nearly 6% of SMEs have gone bankrupt, and these SMEs are originally part of Wenzhou's industrial clusters.

For example, in recent years, the Wenzhou municipal government has focused on attracting the world's top 500 enterprises in attracting foreign investment, introducing new and advanced technology, advanced talents and advanced management concepts, and promoting the upgrading of traditional industrial clusters to the innovative industrial clusters with high value-added industries and brands as the main contents, further enhancing the strength and innovation ability of the industrial clusters, and enhancing the competitiveness of the regional economy.

A leader of the Wenzhou municipal Party committee said: "we should regard brand building as the most important part of enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of the city, so that Wenzhou's industrial clusters will seize the commanding heights in the new round of regional competition."

At present, the city has 33 "national brand" special industrial bases, including "China Shoes Capital", "China's electrical appliances capital", "China's automobile and motorcycle capital" and so on. The regional brand of "made in Wenzhou" has been gradually started.

On the basis of creating a large number of state-level brand names, the Wenzhou municipal government has also encouraged enterprises to strengthen cooperation with famous international enterprises in technology and brand, take the road of internationalization, and put forward the slogan of "combining the people with the outside, and combining the outside with the people", which has sounded the clarion call for "March to the world".

There are more and more private enterprises in Wenzhou and internationally renowned enterprises.

For example, CHINT group cooperates with General Company to build an international electric manufacturing base; AOKANG has cooperated fully with the world shoe giant GEOX Italy to build an international brand production base; Kangnai group has entered the Russian Far East area and so on.

According to the reporter, Wenzhou has also attached great importance to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of 3 million "new Wenzhou people" (migrant workers) in recent years, raising the minimum wage standard, and solving the problem of "shortage of skilled workers" and recruitment difficulties faced by enterprises.