The Western Region Of China Will Face More Fierce Competition In Attracting Investment

According to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, the import of fast fashion clothing brands and sportswear brands such as ZARA, MANGO, VEROMODA, GUESS, H&M, ELAND, UNIQLO from ASEAN increased by more than 80%. The most obvious is H&M, whose basic products are almost all made by Bangladeshi manufacturers.

At the same time, China's clothing imports from ASEAN showed a rapid growth trend. The number of imports increased by 51.3% year on year, the amount of imports increased by 33.6% year on year, and the average import price decreased by 11.7%. During the period, except for February, which was affected by the Spring Festival, each single month maintained a double-digit year-on-year growth rate, with the highest single month growth rate of 92%.

The foreign capital originally invested in China has begun to transfer to ASEAN countries, and the manufacturing industry originally planned to transfer to the central and western provinces in eastern China has also transferred to ASEAN countries... The insiders said that at present, the investment advantages of Southeast Asian countries are increasingly prominent, mainly reflected in labor, exchange rate, export tariff preferences, etc. Therefore, with the rising cost of domestic labor in China, Chinese manufacturers who intend to transfer their business have turned their eyes to the ASEAN market and regard it as the first choice for Chinese enterprises to relocate, so as to keep the product price low. "Made in China" is slowly turning to "Made in ASEAN".

In this regard, some grassroots cadres in the western region reluctantly said that in recent years, due to strong competition from Southeast Asian countries, the western region "needs to spend more energy and effort" when undertaking industrial transfer from developed regions and eastern regions.

Experts remind that while China is transferring manufacturing to ASEAN, it should also pay attention to protecting the ecology of China's textile and clothing industry and guard against the one-sided "ASEAN manufacturing".

According to an annual survey report conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2012, in the past few decades, the world's manufacturing base has shifted from the United States and Europe to Japan, then to the "Four Asian Dragons", then to the mainland of China, and now to Southeast Asia and South Asia. A new world manufacturing industry chain and supply chain different from the past are emerging. In the ranking of the most popular host countries selected by multinational companies, Indonesia and Thailand rose significantly. According to the report, because the wage costs and production costs of East Asian countries, especially China, continue to rise, the relative competitiveness of ASEAN countries in manufacturing continues to strengthen.

In response to this phenomenon, some experts were quite worried and called on the eastern region of China to keep the main body of the manufacturing industry at home and avoid excessive transfer to ASEAN. Manufacturing ecology is the foundation of a strong country. The United States has proposed the return of manufacturing in recent years. The manufacturing industry system is like an ecosystem. Labor intensive, capital intensive and service industries need to match each other. Under the condition of symbiotic development and diversity, they should each account for a certain proportion in the industrial ecosystem, so that the industry can develop well.

However, from a positive perspective, after the manufacturing industry "flies to the southeast", the western region of China will face more intense competition in attracting investment, which will urge the western region to further strengthen the construction of local infrastructure and improve the environment for attracting investment. In addition, the author believes that the implementation of measures should be strengthened to protect the reserve force of China's industry in view of the shortage of migrant workers and other problems caused by factors such as salary increase and the change of the concept of new generation migrant workers in China.