Chen Shujin: Developing Industrial Clusters To Create New Advantages In Textile Industry

Industrial cluster is a unique model in China's economic development. In 2002, when the textile industry cluster was rising rapidly, the China Textile Industry Federation, which had just undergone the reform of the state organs, cooperated with local governments and associations to start the pilot construction of industrial clusters. During the ten years from 2002 to 2012, they witnessed our country together spin The development and changes of industrial clusters. Recently, the reporter interviewed the main person in charge of the cluster pilot co construction work and the vice chairman of the China Textile Industry Federation Chen Shujin 。

Reporter: The textile industry cluster has grown from scratch to today, reflecting the textile industry Industrial chain The advantages of the upstream and downstream enterprises in the same region to consciously divide the labor and develop in a coordinated manner. There are many experiences and lessons from the ten year pilot co construction work. Please talk about your feelings.

Chen Shujin: In fact, China's textile industry clusters, whether formed by traditional industries or driven by foreign investment and exports, can develop to such a large scale today, and most of them maintain the potential for sustainable development in the transformation and upgrading, which is closely related to the attention and support of the local government.

Over the years, local governments have made full use of various resources, followed economic laws, guided and supported the development of industrial clusters, and played an important role in industrial clusters. The first is to prepare the development plan. The characteristic of China's economic development is that planning goes first. The textile and clothing industry is basically included in the planning of pillar industries or key industries, as well as the planning of market construction and industrial support in various industrial clusters. The second is to organize the planning and implementation. Working groups have been set up all over the country, with Party and government leaders serving as the head of the leading group for textile and clothing development, and the office is composed of personnel from the Economic and Information Bureau (Office) and other relevant departments. Third, public service platforms have been set up everywhere, including design and research centers, testing centers, information centers, training centers, logistics centers, intellectual property protection, brand cultivation institutions, and actively promoting the establishment of SME financing guarantee centers. The fourth is to provide support in terms of industrial land indicators and building textile characteristic parks. It includes rigid implementation of national environmental protection policies and supervision and guidance of corporate social responsibility. It also includes the supervision of enterprises in treating employees well, and the implementation of China Textile Enterprise Social Responsibility Management Standard (CSC9000T). The fifth is to focus on the construction of leading enterprises and provide them with support in many aspects, such as promoting listing and striving for national, provincial and municipal policy support.

Reporter: So, under the strong support and guidance of the local government, the development of industrial clusters overcomes blindness and moves from perceptual development to rational development?

Chen Shujin: Yes. In the past, the development of many clusters was very spontaneous and affected by limitations. The cluster region has a poor grasp of the domestic and foreign markets, the industrial development trend, and the understanding of domestic and foreign peers, upstream and downstream industries, and related industries. The development is relatively blind, not only without long-term planning, but also with little short-term planning. Over the years, the situation has greatly improved, and professional development planning has been applied in the vast cluster areas. Nowadays, the more developed cluster areas can rely on their own strength to formulate more realistic long-term and short-term development plans, while the cluster areas with insufficient strength employ national, provincial and municipal associations, or colleges and universities, planning and design institutes, etc. to help with development planning. In the preparation of the plan, the local government can take the whole province, the whole country and even the world into consideration. In particular, with the guidance of the Plan for the Adjustment and Revitalization of the Textile Industry, the Outline for Building a Textile Power, the Eleventh Five Year Development Plan for the Textile Industry, and the Twelfth Five Year Development Plan for the Textile Industry approved and forwarded by the State Council, the level of local planning preparation has been constantly improved. Although the level varies from place to place, it is a progress from perceptual development to rational development.

Reporter: Our industrial clusters have their own unique advantages and have created many experiences that are in line with China's national conditions. Can you analyze the advantages of clusters from the aspects of featured industries and products. {page_break}

Chen Shujin: China's textile industry cluster economies are all characterized by comprehensive development, some are represented by a certain industry, and some are represented by small-scale products. But their common ground is scale and specialization, and some are incredibly large. The reason why the textile industry cluster can develop and grow is that it is possible to achieve low cost, high efficiency, improve profit margins and enhance competitiveness by implementing scale. The industrial cluster economy also has strong characteristics of knowledge spillover and technology spillover, which makes its scale expand rapidly. Whether government leaders or entrepreneurs in textile cluster areas, these years, they can timely grasp the rule of becoming bigger and more specialized, and quickly become bigger, forming one by one characteristic industrial cluster that plays an important role in a certain industry or a certain type of product. For example, in Shengzhou, Zhejiang, the first Sino foreign joint venture Jiayou Tie Co., Ltd. was established in December 1984, and Shengzhou's tie industry started. By 2009, the production of ties will reach 350 million, accounting for 90% of the national production and 50% of the global production. Cixi City, Zhejiang Province, is the world's largest production cluster of plush products. At present, its production of plush products accounts for 60% of the world's total. With the efforts of enterprises and the support of the government, enterprises with scale advantages have been formed. Their competitiveness in this field has rapidly increased, forcing enterprises in other countries and regions to change production or even give up. There are many similar examples. In the pilot industrial clusters of the China Textile Industry Federation, many of them have become "singles" champions in a certain category of products in the country or even the world.

Reporter: Is the supporting industry chain the biggest advantage of the cluster?

Chen Shujin: As we all know, the textile industry chain is long and has many links. In a region, the more complete the processing industry chain is, the lower the procurement costs will be. It is less affected by market fluctuations. Because the upstream and downstream are closely connected, the cluster economy is relatively stable. In the process of cluster economy development, it is a typical practice to improve the industrial chain, which is also difficult for foreign textile peers to match. Some industrial clusters have a long history, and the original industrial chain is relatively complete. In the development, they pay more attention to balance to make the industrial chain stronger. There are also some clusters that have strengthened the improvement of the industrial chain when developing characteristic industries and products. The upstream product cluster extends downstream, the downstream product cluster expands upstream, and the intermediate product cluster develops at both ends. Many clusters with a good grasp have made good decisions from the macro and micro aspects in combination with their own actual conditions, so they have achieved good results.

Taking Fujian Changle as an example, Fujian Changle textile started from warp knitting. In 1979, the first 303 warp knitting machine was introduced to produce chemical fiber mosquito nets. By 1996, there were more than 500 warp knitting enterprises. Warp knitting lace and other products are famous at home and abroad. Due to the large use of chemical fiber raw materials such as nylon, enterprises see business opportunities. Changle Municipal Government paid great attention to the supporting of the industrial chain. In 2005, Liheng nylon was established. In 2006, the first phase of the nylon spinning project was put into production. Later, other projects were launched. In 2011, the output value of the chemical fiber industry in the city reached 25 billion yuan. Leading chemical fiber enterprises have driven more warp knitting enterprises into the industrial chain. Now Changle has 13000 warp knitting machines, and has accelerated technological innovation in the warp knitting industry. The product quality has been greatly improved.

Reporter: From the perspective of global economic integration, has industrial cluster become the comparative advantage of China's textile industry?

Chen Shujin: You can say that. Over the years, China's textile industry cluster regions have deeply realized that the current market competition has, in a sense, developed from the competition between enterprises in the past to the competition in the industrial chain. Only by strengthening the construction of the industrial chain can the competitiveness of local products be improved. At present, the industrial chains in cluster areas with strong strength are perfect, which enables them to maintain their competitive advantage. At the same time, we see that the specialized markets in cluster areas are also developing rapidly, and the market functions are increasing, which has formed a good interaction with the industry. The online sales e-commerce in cluster areas has become very common. The close combination of industry, professional market and e-commerce has made the textile cluster areas more competitive under the current business model.