Many Years Of Friendship Sparkled With New Sparks: How Much Benefit Did The Textile Industry Benefit When Sino Italian Economic And Trade Entered "Honeymoon"?

This year, China intends to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership 15th anniversary. Next year, it will usher in 50th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relations. China has become Italy's largest trading partner in Asia. In March this year, the governments of China and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding between China and Italy to jointly promote the construction of "one belt and one road". Italy officially became the first G7 country to sign the memorandum of understanding on the "one belt and one road" initiative. The signing of this memorandum has aroused widespread concern in Italy, and has also begun to look forward to the further deepening and strengthening of Sino Italian cooperation.

According to statistics, in the first half of this year, Chinese people boarded foreigners' first place in Italy's duty-free goods consumption, accounting for 29%, an increase of 6% compared with the same period in 2018.

It can be said that at present, the economic and trade relations between China and Italy are entering "honeymoon period". So how much will the spinning and clothing industry benefit from it?

Italian luxury goods market benefits most

The report released by the Italy Federation of handicraftsmen and small businesses earlier this year showed that from 2000 to 2018, the average annual growth of GDP in Italy was 0.2%, close to "zero growth". In the face of such a harsh economic situation, consumers from China will surely put a strong heart on the new round of growth in Italy's economy. From 2017 to 2018, the total volume of Chinese consumer transactions in Italy increased by 188% over the same period last year. Consumption data from a local payment platform related to the Chinese new year show that sales in French stores decreased by 9% over the same period last year, while Italy increased by 22% over the same period last year.

Milan Mont Napoleon street is one of the most famous luxury shopping streets in Italy. It is located in the four corners of golden fashion in Milan, where there are more than 100 global luxury brands. Recently, Guglielmo Miyani, chairman of the Monterey Napoleon neighborhood Management Committee, introduced the development status and Prospect of Monte Napoleon block in an interview with local media in Italy. In his interview, he pointed out the importance of Chinese consumers to enhance their turnover.

Sales of duty free goods on Mont Napoleon Street reflect the overall sales trend of the business district. From the overall data, in 2018, Chinese consumption accounted for 36% of the total sales volume of Milan gold fashion four corner area, and ranked the top of foreigners consumption list in Milan. Miyani said: "we think Chinese consumption will continue to grow. By 2025, they will contribute nearly half of the sales volume of the whole block. It is for this reason that we have launched a number of services to attract Chinese consumers.

Miyani said that now, Chinese consumers can apply for tax rebates under the help of staff in the private lounge of Monte Napoleon. The Monterey Napoleon neighborhood Management Committee has also launched an official public address on WeChat, a Chinese social networking platform. During major festivals in China, special activities and customized products are organized in the neighborhood. To better serve Chinese customers, the Mont Napoleon block hired Chinese salesmen.

Similarly, in order to tap potential consumer groups in China, Rinascente, a high-end department store in Italy, extended its On Demand to instant messaging service On App on Whats App. It is worth noting that the WeChat public address also provides users with additional information sharing and promotional activities. "Overseas consumers contributed 50% of the revenue to Rinascente, especially Chinese consumers. They spent an average of 250 euros on Rinascente and continued to grow: in the first half of the year, we have received more than 275 thousand orders from Chinese consumers." Rinascente chief executive said.

It is reported that Luisa Via Roma, a luxury electronics retailer in Florence, has also entered into a cooperative relationship with the well-known luxury goods business Temple Library in China, and is making a key step towards China's luxury market. According to the content of the agreement, the temple library can integrate more than 600 luxury goods and fashion brands on the Luisa Via Roma platform into its own brand portfolio, and they will provide support for Luisa Via Roma in mobile payment, order tracking and logistics.

Bilateral textile industry complement each other

In 2018, Italy's total exports to China increased by 22.2%, of which textiles and clothing accounted for 13% of the total volume. At the same time, China's demand for leather goods and accessories in Italy has increased at an annual rate of 20%.

Italy is known as the kingdom of small and medium-sized enterprises. The number of small and medium-sized enterprises accounts for more than 99.8% of the total number of enterprises. It has great influence in the global market and is the core supporting force of Italy's economic strength and national competitiveness. According to the insiders, SMEs, industrial clusters and "traditional" sectors are three interrelated and equally important aspects of Italy's manufacturing system. They have outlined the general outline and important features of Italy's industrial economy from different angles: they are highly based on small and medium enterprises in the form of production organization, and are famous for their industrial structure in many industrial clusters.

Prato, a famous textile city, is a major city to support the development of Italy's textile and clothing industry. It specializes in the production of top grade fabrics for Italy luxury brands such as Gucci and Armani. It is understood that many people and workers in Prato are Chinese. It is understood that Prato city is located in a small town in the north of Italy, the largest number of Chinese immigrants in Italy. Entrepreneurs from China not only take up over 95% of the garment processing in the region, but also break the pattern of processing. Now, there are more than 6500 Chinese enterprises in China.

According to the president of Italy General Chamber of Commerce in China, the signing of the memorandum of understanding between China and Italy to jointly promote the construction of "one belt and one road" will bring more investment and cooperation opportunities to Italy's local textile enterprises. For example, he said, in the downtown area of Rome, Italy, the shops of local people in Italy are being rented by Chinese businessmen and used to run traditional businesses such as clothing trade. According to the data of the chamber of Commerce, there are 70 thousand Chinese business owners in Italy.

A fabric manufacturer in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, has been developing in Italy for many years. With Sino Italian economic and trade entering the "honeymoon period", the confidence of the Chinese businessman has increased sharply. It has begun to expand the scale of production in Italy, and has moved the factory to platto and rented tens of thousands of square meters of warehouse, half of which is supplied to the Chinese market. In order to further expand the order business from China, the Chinese textile enterprise also bought the largest dyeing factory in the Prato area with 2 million euros, including 4000 square meters of factory buildings, plus 10 thousand square meters of land. If the machine was opened, it could be dyed 150 thousand meters a day.

It is reported that the early report of Italy Federation of handicraftsmen and small business associations shows that under the current slowdown in the average annual growth rate of GDP in Italy, the "one belt and one way" initiative from China will give vitality to Italy's new round of trade growth.

Broad prospects for future industrial cooperation

Despite the rise of Global trade protectionism, the industrial cooperation between China and Italy shows a positive momentum of development.

According to the statistics of the European Union statistics bureau, the bilateral trade volume between Italy and China in 2018 was 51 billion 870 million US dollars, up 9.4% over the same period last year. Among them, Italy exported 15 billion 540 million US dollars to China, an increase of 1.8% over the same period last year, and Italy imported from China 36 billion 330 million US dollars, an increase of 13.1% over the same period last year, accounting for 7.3% of its total imports, up 0.2 percentage points over the same period last year.

China is the primary source of textiles and raw materials in Italy. In 2018, Italy imported $5 billion 260 million of textiles and raw materials, accounting for 14.5% of its total imports from China, up 5.5% from the same period last year. In textiles and raw materials, imports of non knitting or non Crocheted garments were $1 billion 660 million, an increase of 0.8% over the same period last year.

Textiles and raw materials are also important products for Italy's exports to China. In 2018, they exported 4 billion 650 million US dollars, representing 29.9% of Italy's total exports to China.

Not long ago, the global tour exhibition organized by the China Textile City Merchants Group in Keqiao, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, held successfully in Italy. More than 20 high-quality textile enterprises in Keqiao, more than 5000 high-end quality fabrics, have received keen attention from Italy buyers. At the event, hundreds of fabric categories such as embroidery, chiffon, satin, denim, suede and so on attracted more than 100 people, such as ROMITO, GEOSPIRIT, MOOD and other clothing companies and fabric organizations, to bring new cooperation to both sides.

In this regard, some experts pointed out that in the future, can we strengthen the cross regional and inter industry resources complementary and horizontal links between the two industrial clusters? Can we speed up the docking between creative design capability of Italy industrial clusters and manufacturing advantages of Chinese industrial clusters? Is it possible to combine Italy's craftsmanship with China's mature commercial brands and establish business channels for the huge consumer market as well as online and offline? All this will bring new space for expanding cooperation between the two countries.