China'S Textile Industry Joint Liang Xiaohui: "One Belt And One Road" Brings Development Opportunities For Sino Burmese Garment Industry Cooperation

In the Yangon area of Burma, there are 5 brand-new factories on both sides of the road, and 3600 local workers are working here.

This is the Cathay Burma garment industrial park which opened to the end of the year. It is also one of the largest garment industrial parks in Burma.

Under the guidance of "one belt and one road" construction, a large number of Chinese garment enterprises have invested in Burma since 2014. "At present, 60% of Burma's clothing enterprises belong to foreign capital, while Chinese enterprises account for 60% of foreign-funded enterprises."

Kekene, Secretary General of Burma Garment Manufacturers Association, told our reporter that the average monthly 80% of newly established clothing enterprises are Chinese capital.

Top level design brings important opportunities for development

"In fact, before 2004, the clothing industry in Burma was more developed, but because of the sanctions imposed by western countries, the Burma garment industry has been in a long-term recession. This situation did not change until 2014."

Shi Kun, executive vice president of Burma textile and Garment Association of China, said that in 2012, Burma promulgated the foreign investment law and formulated investment rules for the garment industry to encourage the development of foreign garment industry.

With the change of Burma's domestic and international situation, Chinese clothing enterprises have also visited Burma to investigate investment.

Yan Qiuhong is the general manager of Heng Tian (Yangon) Garments Co., Ltd., where her factory landed in Yangon province in June 2014 and expanded the production scale to two factories in a short time. Now more than 2600 Burma workers are working here.

She told reporters that when the company looked at the relatively low cost of labor in Burma and the preferential tax policies provided by the local government, after more than 3 years of development, the production capacity of the Burma factory was greatly improved. "In the future, we will build a factory of 10000 people and seize the golden age of investment in Burma".

Kekene believes that the development of clothing manufacturing industry, Burma's population advantage is obvious - in nearly 53 million of the population, 65% of the working age, and half of which is the clothing manufacturing industry favored by the female population.

The Burmese people attach importance to their families and learn to be adaptable.

"The Burma government has also improved the working ability of the population by establishing relevant skills training centers."

As a latecomer, Cathay Pacific Burma garment industrial park has a deeper investment consideration.

Zhao Kai, the head of the Industrial Park Management Committee, told reporters that Burma has a high quality traditional clothing production process and accumulated some experience in manufacturing high-end textile products. At the same time, Burma enjoys the EU's GSP treatment and enjoys tax exemption for exports from other countries such as Japan. Besides, the garment industry is also the priority development target of Burma government.

"Burma Industrial Park" is an important expansion and supplement of Cathay Pacific's existing domestic source base, and also a model factory and Issuing Center for Cathay Pacific.

We take the park factory as the order center, and constantly drive the surrounding factories to develop together, thus forming a certain scale agglomeration effect.

Liang Xiaohui, chief research fellow of the China Federation of textile industry's social responsibility office, believes that the top-level design of "one belt and one road" initiative and China Burma economic corridor will bring important development opportunities for Sino Burmese garment industry cooperation.

For Burma, China is not only a source of investment in the textile and garment industry, but also an important source of raw materials and intermediate products. It is also becoming a consuming country of textile and clothing products in the country.

China and Myanmar are linked by mountains and rivers, bilateral relations are stable, industry complementarity is strong, and they have the natural advantages of cooperation in developing textile and garment industry.

Here, workers see new hope.

According to the preliminary statistics of the economic and business department of the Chinese Embassy in Burma, there are more than 300 Chinese invested enterprises in Burma's textile and garment industry, employing nearly 300 thousand local labor force.

Chinese garment enterprises have contributed a lot of tax revenue to Burma while expanding their business, and have also contributed to improving the skills and quality of local labor force.

"Let employees grow together with enterprises. This is the tradition that Cathay has always adhered to."

Zhao Kai said that at the beginning of its creation, the industrial park established the concept of treating employees well, respected the local traditional culture of Burma, helped workers improve their efficiency, increased their employees' income, created a harmonious and friendly working environment, made workers feel warm and warm from the details, and trained local managers in Burma to provide them with a rising channel and space.

Min Min, 26, is a tiny Burma girl. If she hadn't seen her in a factory, it would be hard to imagine that she was running a team of 95 people.

"I am very satisfied with my work.

I feel that the colleagues in the factory are all family members. The teacher always cares about teaching me, so I have the opportunity to be competent for this job.

Min Minwu mentioned the master, is the director of Guotai Han Bo Burma Garments Co., Ltd. Tang Qinghai.

Tang Qinghai has worked in Burma for more than two years. In his view, young people in Burma have auras and are willing to learn technology.

He established friendship with his local colleagues and became a family. Many young Burma workers were more willing to call him "master" and "father".

Tang Qinghai also unreservedly teaches from the foundation and teaches professional skills and crisis management ability to his disciples in Burma.

Now, the management level of this factory is 80% of Burmese employees. "Through the humanized and institutionalized management, the workers in Burma have seen the hope of development. After all, we still have to hand over the business to the young people in Burma".

With new hope, there is new impetus.

Jiao, a 28 year old brother, has a more profound understanding of this.

He has worked in several foreign garment factories, but he has the longest time in Heng Tian, and now he is in charge of the factory's fabric store.

He told reporters that the Chinese leaders are willing to listen and accept their opinions and suggestions, so that he and his colleagues feel that this factory is trustworthy.

More importantly, the factory continues to expand the scale of production, so that he can see new hope.

"Now I am working hard to learn Chinese, and I hope to be able to use it when the three factory opens," Jiao brother said with a smile.

Promoting local industrialization and urbanization pformation

In December last year, the 2017 Burma international textile exhibition, jointly sponsored by the China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce and the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, was held in Yangon. This is the first large-scale textile and clothing exhibition held in Burma in recent years. 150 Chinese companies have participated in the exhibition, attracting more than 10 thousand spectators in 3 days and signing the intention contract of about 50000000 US dollars at the scene.

Wu Du min, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce of Burma, believes that it is the best time to invest and trade in Burma.

This exhibition shows the future development prospects of the textile and garment industry.

He hopes to introduce China's advanced technology, textiles and textile machinery into Burma through exhibitions, and promote the further development of textile industry in both countries.

Kekene has deep feelings for China's industrial development.

She has visited many places in Suzhou and Dalian, and witnessed the success of the development mode of China's industrial park. She also believes that this development mode can absorb the production capacity of the whole value chain, reduce the cost of procurement and logistics, and effectively create employment.

She also hopes that Chinese funded enterprises will invest in the construction of the garment industrial park to bring new opportunities for the development of Burma.

"The construction of the garment industrial park promotes the overall technology and technology level of Burma's garment manufacturing industry, and drives relevant international brands to place orders directly in Burma.

Adequate quality orders in turn help traditional garment factories in Burma upgrade and upgrade their technological processes, thus directly promoting the healthy development and pformation and upgrading of Burma's garment manufacturing industry.

Zhao Kai said that with the increasing number of orders, they are planning to build the two phase of the industrial park.

Liang Xiaohui said that Chinese textile and garment enterprises have brought about the experience of organization and management of industrial production. They have continuously nurtured managerial talents for local areas, played a technology spillover effect, and promoted the pformation of local industrialization and urbanization.

The establishment of Chinese funded enterprises eventually led to a yearly increase in the size of Burma's clothing exports.

According to the data provided by the Burma apparel manufacturers association, the average annual growth rate of clothing exports in Burma has exceeded 20% since 2014, and the total value of clothing products exported to major countries (regions) in 2016 is about US $1 billion 950 million.

In the near future, Chinese funded enterprises will set up the first bonded warehouse project in Yangon province in Burma.

Shi Kun said that with the help of this platform, the Burma textile and garment industry will establish the first local supply chain, store the fabrics and accessories made in China in the form of bonded warehouses in Burma, so as to realize the upgrading of Burma's garment industry from the raw material processing to the on board delivery mode, increasing the added value of the garment industry and promoting the re export of garment exports in Burma.