Work Hand In Hand To Promote Cooperation Between China, Japan And Korea In Textile Industry.

In November 21st, the ninth Sino Japanese fiber industry cooperation conference was held in Seoul, South Korea. The representatives of the three textile industries gathered together to conduct in-depth exchanges around the four major issues of textile industry development and outlook, trade and investment in textile industry, sustainable development, fashion and technology, and discussed the future cooperation initiatives and reached a series of important consensus.

Gao Yong, secretary and Secretary General of the China Textile Industry Federation (hereinafter referred to as "China Textile union"), vice chairman of the China Textile Federation, chairman of the textile industry branch of the China Council for the promotion of international trade, Xu Yingxin, chairman of the China Textile Association, Chen Dapeng, deputy Director General of the China clothing association and Yuan Hongping, director of the foreign affairs office, Yan Yan, chairman of the China Federation of social responsibility office, Chen Zhihua, chairman of China printing and dyeing industry association, chairman of the China Fashion Designers Association, vice chairman of the China Chemical Fiber Association, vice president of the China Textile Construction Planning Institute, and the Federation of Korean fiber industry.

In his speech, Gao Yong pointed out that the Sino Japanese and Korean fiber industry cooperation conference has been successfully held for eight sessions since 2010, and the contents of the conference have been expanded and deepened. Through effective communication and communication, the textile industry of the three countries has not only deepened their understanding and gained more development consensus, but also gained useful experience and inspiration from their development experiences, and found opportunities for common cooperation and common development. The trilateral fiber industry cooperation conference is a model project for China Textile Alliance to carry out regional exchanges of international textile industry, and has made an important demonstration for China's textile industry to carry out international regional cooperation. Gao Yong sincerely hopes that the three countries' fiber industry cooperation conference will continue to push forward the cooperation of the three countries' textile industry.

Agenda item 1: current situation and Prospect of textile industry in Korea, Japan and China

Xu Yingxin, vice president of China Textile Federation, spoke on behalf of the Chinese side. Xu Yingxin introduced the current situation and progress of China's textile industry's economic operation, transformation and upgrading, and shared the development trend and Prospect of China's textile industry. In recent years, China's textile industry has entered a new stage of high quality development from the high speed growth stage in the past. The development speed has slowed down, and structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading are deepening. Since 2019, influenced by the slow growth of the world economy and Sino US trade friction, the pressure of China's textile industry has increased, exports have shown a negative growth trend, the growth rate of domestic demand market has slowed down as a whole, production has maintained a low growth rate, and the efficiency of textile enterprises has declined. On the other hand, the characteristics of the high quality development of the textile industry are more obvious. The growth rate of online retail sales in the domestic demand market maintains a 2 digit growth rate. The performance of the industrial chain terminal links is relatively stable, the structure of export products has been optimized, the level of internationalization has been steadily improved, the fiber and vitamin materials are further enriched, and the types of terminal products are more abundant. The proportion of fiber consumption of clothing, home textiles and industrial three terminal products in 2018 has been adjusted to 45:27:28.

Xu Yingxin said that deepening the supply side reform and promoting the development of high quality is a long-term and urgent task for China's textile industry. The textile industry will insist on promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, further tap the potential of domestic demand market, develop diversified international markets, deepen cooperation with the countries along the belt and road, and build a more efficient international industrial layout system.

The representative of South Korea said that the structure of the Korean textile and garment industry is changing. The enterprises pay more attention to the development and production of high value-added products, and the number of small businesses is increasing, accounting for more than 66%. In 2018, the size of Korean clothing market increased by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, and the investment in textile machinery and equipment increased by 6.8% over the same period last year. The development of Korean textile industry is also facing some difficulties. There are problems such as recruitment difficulties and rising labor costs, resulting in a continuous decline in production and shipment indices and an increase in stock index. Looking ahead, China's textile and clothing exports are expected to decrease due to the Sino US trade friction and the slowdown of major countries in the world. With the reduction of domestic production in Korea, the scale of imports from Southeast Asia and other overseas purchases will increase. It is expected that the size and consumption demand of Korean domestic clothing market will increase.

Japanese representative said that in recent years, Japan's fiber industry's production index showed a downward trend, but the weaving and dyeing production index had increased; the consumption index of chemical fiber in the clothing field continued to slump, and the consumption index in non clothing areas such as automobile production and construction projects continued to grow. In 2018, Japan imported 39 billion 390 million US dollars of fiber products, an increase of 8% over the same period last year, and exports of US $8 billion 160 million, an increase of 3% over the same period last year, and the trade deficit continued to expand. Japan's fiber industry's future development priorities and initiatives will focus on five aspects: first, deal with trade issues and promote globalization; two, develop new markets through new technology development and cross industry cooperation; three, continue to focus on environmental protection and product safety; four, make use of the Internet of things to create new business models; five, promote industry standardization.

Agenda item two: Trade and investment in the textile industry

Under the background of uncertainty in the global trading environment, the three sides exchanged information and exchanged experiences on the latest signing of the free trade agreements, the trade and foreign investment of the three countries, and discussed how to further deepen business cooperation. At the same time, the three parties reached a consensus on solving the factors of international trade disputes, including Sino US trade issues, and enhancing the importance of mutual cooperation.

Zhang Qian, deputy director of the China Textile Industry Economic Research Institute, spoke on behalf of the Chinese side. Zhang Qian introduced the current situation of China's FTA signing and negotiations. China, Japan and South Korea are expected to build a "RCEP+" free trade zone based on the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP). Subsequently, Zhang Qian analyzed the growth characteristics of the export stage of China's textile industry, and China's textile and clothing exports accounted for the world's share since 1994. The accession to the WTO and the liberalization of global textile and garment trade have made the Chinese textile industry export more than 6 years and maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 20%, and reached a historical peak of 38% in 2015. With the adjustment of China's textile industry's international capacity layout, China's textile and clothing exports in 2018 accounted for 33.7% of the global share. Since the entry into force of the China South Korea Free Trade Zone, China's exports of textiles and clothing to Korea have maintained a relatively fast growth, and the enterprises have benefited a lot. The growth rate of China's and Japan's textile and clothing trade has been slowing down, but the trade complementarity between the three countries is still a solid foundation for closer trade relations. South Korea and Japan respectively introduced the trade situation of textile and clothing products. Since 2019, the scale of export textile and clothing has been reduced in South Korea. The proportion of imported fabrics and clothing from Korea has been increasing. The proportion of imported carbon fiber and industrial fiber from Korea to Japan has been increasing, and the export of Japanese fiber products has also slowed down.

Zhang Qian reviewed the progress of Sino US trade friction, and pointed out that the United States has imposed a 15%~25% tariff on all kinds of textile and clothing imported from China. The impact on the industry's exports has emerged. China's textile and clothing products which are substitutable and competitive in the US market are later added to the list of taxes, and the market share is relatively stable after levying tariffs. The Japanese side highlighted the background of the signing of the Japan US fiber agreement in 70s, and the experience of taking measures to deal with trade frictions, such as expanding domestic demand, expanding fiber application areas and expanding overseas investment.

Finally, the three sides exchanged the trend and characteristics of foreign investment. The external investment of China's textile industry has accelerated to create the two main lines of "China plus" one belt "rapid response manufacturing system and the integration of high-quality resources to reconstruct the value chain. Outward investment is accelerating." one belt and one road "is the main area of investment growth. The number of legal persons invested abroad is close to 6000, while China accounts for 55.4%. But in recent years, overseas investment is concentrated in Vietnam. Vietnam will continue to be the main investor in the future with the entry of EU Vietnam FTA and South Korea Indonesia CEPA. Japan's chemical fiber enterprises and textile enterprises accounted for 55% and 73% of overseas equipment respectively. ASEAN is the main area of foreign investment. Investment in China has gradually decreased and investment in the Americas has increased.

Conference topic three: sustainable development of textile industry

With the promotion of the concept of global sustainable development and the constant attention to climate change issues, the three sides agree to unify and coordinate the consensus of promoting the sustainable development of the textile industry, create three cooperation mechanisms, promote the disclosure and sharing of responsible information, and jointly launch industrial action under the concept of sustainable development, and jointly promote the global governance of information interconnection and regional industries.

Yan Yan, director of the China Federation of social responsibility office, spoke on behalf of the Chinese side. Yan Yan pointed out that reducing pollution and achieving green development is a common global challenge and needs global cooperation. With the increasing impact of China's textile and garment industry on the global textile production and consumption, the green development of the industry is changing from passive responsibility to responsibility creating value. China Textile Federation attaches great importance to environmental problems, focusing on energy conservation, emission reduction, cleaner production and comprehensive utilization of resources, including actively promoting the pioneer projects for sustainable development, and co operating with international brands, signing the "fashion industry climate action charter", further developing chemicals management and establishing partnership with European buyers. At the same time, Yan Yan shared the advanced and applicable technology of energy saving and emission reduction in China's textile industry, and introduced the "China's plant dyed Industry Association" and "the green development alliance of regenerated cellulose fiber industry", and hoped that China, Japan and Korea will strengthen dialogue and cooperation on plant dyeing and regenerated fiber.

Japan and South Korea have announced the latest information on environmental and product safety laws and regulations, and advocate the exchange of information and practical experience in chemical management, marine environmental protection, climate change and biodiversity conservation. In addition, Frank Michael, director of ZDHC, a European Group on the zero emission of hazardous chemicals, conveys information to delegates attending the conference on behalf of the global enterprise alliance, which has made every effort to change the industry.

Conference topic four: fashion and technology

Chen Dapeng, vice president of China Textile Association and President of China Fashion Association, chaired the topic. Chen Dapeng said that the new round of technological revolution has brought great changes to the fashion industry. Digital technology is rapidly and comprehensively integrated into the value chain of the fashion industry. From design creativity, product development, commodity planning, flexible customization, intelligent production, to sales, service, management and other aspects, the transformation of industrial form and business mode has been brought about. Digital technology has become an important driving force for industrial innovation and development. Therefore, fashion and technology issues have important realistic and enlightening significance for the three garment fashion industry.

The three sides respectively introduced their development trends in the field of fashion and technology, and focused on the specific work carried out by various countries around the digitalization and intellectualization of garment manufacturing, and discussed the future development trend and common challenges and opportunities faced by the countries.

Liu Bing, general manager of China Fashion intelligent manufacturing technology innovation strategic alliance and general manager of Shanghai pin Yi Information Technology Co., Ltd., spoke on behalf of the Chinese side. Liu Bing systematically reported the current situation, achievements, development trends and challenges and opportunities of Chinese clothing intelligent manufacturing and technological innovation. It is suggested that China, Japan and Korea strengthen cooperation in building a fashion industry service chain, building a big data platform for clothing and smart smart quick reverse supply chain collaboration platform. The representative of Korean Fashion Association introduces the latest applications of digital technology in fashion publishing, online purchasing and personalized customization through examples such as "Linkshops" and "Within24". The Japanese Fiber Industry Alliance representative introduced Japan's progress in research on artificial intelligence and Internet of things. It is believed that the wide application of artificial intelligence and Internet of things will bring fundamental changes to the fiber and fashion industry. Smart textiles are expected to improve people's health care level.

The three sides agreed to continue to enhance information exchange in fashion and technology fields, and discuss the cooperation between the three parties in the field of intelligent manufacturing and research, fashion industry service chain collaboration and so on.

With the joint efforts of the three countries, the Ninth China Japan Cooperation Conference on fiber industry has been a complete success. Under the testimony of the delegates, the party secretary and Secretary General Gao Yong of the China Textile Union, the Korean Fiber Industry Federation will grow into Qi crane, and the Japanese Fiber Industry Federation President Kamahara Masano signed the "three party agreement" and posed for a group photo.

In order to promote more in-depth exchanges and cooperation, China, Japan and Korea agreed to convene the Tenth China Japan Korea fiber industry cooperation conference in Osaka, Japan on 18-19 November 2020.