"Demographic Dividend" Ebb Guangdong Shoe Industry Retreat

Guangdong footwear industry retreat in November 30th, Dongguan Chang Deng Footwear Co., Ltd. issued second compensation to employees. The factory, which has nearly 20 years of experience in shoemaking and more than 4000 employees, will be closed in December 20th. A local shoe factory owner who did not want to be named revealed that the most direct reason why Chang Deng chose to end the business at the end of the year is to cope with the new labor contract law, which will be implemented in January 1, 2008. But the deeper possibility is that shoes processing and export are becoming more and more difficult now. After the shortage of workers, electricity and export, the price of raw materials has risen and the RMB has appreciated since the beginning of this year. The profit rate of the whole footwear industry has been greatly reduced compared with the previous years. According to statistics from the Asian Footwear Association, there are five thousand or six thousand shoe factories in Guangdong, and more than one thousand large and medium-sized enterprises have been closed. There are more than 3000 shoe factories in Huidong. In the last two or three months, four hundred or five hundred small and medium-sized shoemaking and shoe factories have been closed. If Chang Deng is a microcosm of the footwear industry in Dongguan, Dongguan footwear industry is also a microcosm of "made in China" in the Pearl River Delta. At the beginning, the downstream industry chain was chosen because of quick returns, low cost and the maximum use of cheap labor force. However, after such a road has passed over 20 years, the labor force is no longer cheap, and the cost is no longer low. The "demographic dividend" shrinks in the 80s of last century. The Hunan railway station was crushed by people who bought the train tickets in South China. Liang Manguang, director of the Guangdong labor and social security department, was ordered to deal with it. At that time, his mission was to stay at Hunan railway station and mobilize migrant workers not to go south blindly. More than 20 years later, the retired director has to worry about organizing people to go to rural areas in Jiangxi and Hunan to persuade local young people to work in Guangdong. 20 years ago, working in Guangzhou could earn five hundred or six hundred yuan, which was an attractive reward at that time. But an old employee of the shoe industry often said that in 1996, the wages of front-line workers in the factory were about 1000 yuan, and 10 years later, the figure remained unchanged. With the economic development, the Pearl River Delta's advantages were no longer obvious. The factories run by some provincial capitals in the inland area also earn basically 600 to 800 yuan. "There are also factories in Changsha. I go there and work close to home. When I am busy farming, I can also take care of the crops in the fields, and I can't afford much money." Wei Xinguo, a 43 year old farmer in Yueyang, and his wife worked in an electronics factory in Foshan and Huidong 20 years ago. He returned to Changsha three years ago to do the same job, while his wife worked in the old household farm and took care of the elderly. "Where to earn money is not earned, but young people should go to Guangdong to see the world like that." According to his father's wishes, the elder son of Lao Wei graduated from high school to "see the world" in Guangdong, but in the three year he changed four factories, and there were still many times in which he was unemployed. Lao Wei sighed, "at that time, we could eat anything hard, just as long as we could make money. Now young people are not like us at that time. They do not suffer hardships, and do nothing at all. Even a large factory which often has a relatively stable salary for more than 4000 employees, has a fairly strong mobility. "We can't recruit people. We came back from the Spring Festival last year. There are two production lines in the factory, and our production line is five." A local shoe factory owner said. The government helps enterprises to move westward. If recruitment is difficult, prices of raw materials are high, prices of electricity prices are high, competition is fierce, and space for growth is not enough, the market sends signals to the PRD manufacturing industry, so government guidance also conveys the same message. Chen Zhongqiu, mayor of Houjie Town, Dongguan, said he was not worried about the fact that shoe manufacturers were closing down. Because at present, the low value-added manufacturing process is being transferred, and the core technology R & D and procurement trade remains in Dongguan. The government's attitude towards the once brilliant labor-intensive industries has also undergone subtle changes. Moreover, the Guangdong government is trying to "find the home" for these manufacturing enterprises. In August 2003, Guangdong first proposed a new motion to promote economic cooperation in the Great Pearl River Delta region. In June 3, 2004, nine provinces, including Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, and two special administrative regions (9+2), Hongkong and Hongkong, signed the "Pan PRD Regional Cooperation Framework Agreement". For the "reform leader" of Guangdong Province, there are two extraordinary meanings: one is Yunnan and Guizhou's "power transmission from west to East," the two is cooperation between Hunan, Sichuan and Guangxi, "input and exchange of labor supply and demand information and export of labor services". But the other 8 provinces are more important to welcome the "industrial transfer" of Guangdong's manufacturing industry. Professor Chen Guanghan, director of the research center of Hong Kong, Macao and Pearl River Delta, Zhongshan University, said: "the manufacturing industry in Guangdong has entered the late stage of industrialization. However, some provinces in the central part of Hunan and Jiangxi are still in the initial stage of industrialization, such as Guangxi or Yunnan and Guizhou, and some of them are just beginning to industrialize, which is conducive to industrial transfer." On the other hand, the bad money is expelled from the good currency, while on the other side, the bad money of others becomes a tangible benefit. He Tongxin, vice governor of Hunan Province, revealed that more than 50% of Hunan's investment in 2005 came from Guangdong. "Hunan is the most direct beneficiary of the 9+2 agreement." In the "typical county of accepting industrial transfer" - Lanshan County, Hunan Province, in a short span of three or four years, the export oriented processing trade, which is mainly made up of wool, has grown from scratch to more than 300. In this regard, Liu Shiqing, Secretary of the Lanshan county Party committee, said: "opportunities are available at all times. Whoever holds them will have nothing. If we take the opportunity of Pan Pearl River Delta industrial transfer, whoever will seize this opportunity will develop faster." Western provinces and municipalities also saw the need for industrial transfer in eastern coastal areas. In from September 9 to 14, 2007, the Sichuan provincial Party committee and the provincial government organized a delegation to Guangdong, Shanghai and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and four provinces (municipalities) to carry out economic cooperation. That month, Guang Hong shoe industry Co., Ltd. located in Panyu, Guangzhou, decided to move to Sichuan Mount Emei as a whole. The total investment of the project is US $40 million, and we will build 32 modern craft shoemaking lines, with about 16000000 pairs of shoes per year. In addition, the Guangdong provincial government has also tried some industrial cooperation with some remote provinces in the northwest. In November 16th, Huang Huahua, deputy secretary of the Guangdong provincial Party committee and governor of Shaanxi, deputy secretary of the Shaanxi provincial Party committee and governor Yuan Chunqing, respectively signed the "two provinces strategic cooperation framework agreement" on behalf of the two provinces, and committed themselves to "comprehensively promoting the exchanges and cooperation between the two provinces in industrial docking, resource development, and scientific and technological talents".