Regional Cooperation And Supply Chain Stability! The First Formal Working Meeting Of The Textile And Garment Merchants Association Of Lancang Mekong Region Was Held Online

On the morning of July 31, China Textile Industry Federation and Lancang Mekong textile and garment Merchants Association from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand jointly launched the first work exchange meeting in 2020. This is also the first formal working meeting held by the association of textile and garment merchants in the Lancang Mekong region since the establishment of the working mechanism of the "dialogue on the textile and garment industry in the Lancang Mekong region" in October last year. Xu Yingxin, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation, executive director of China textile international production capacity cooperation enterprise alliance, and President of textile industry branch of China Council for the promotion of trade, Yuan Hongping, Deputy Secretary General of China Textile Federation and director of Foreign Affairs Office, attended the meeting, and Lin Yunfeng, vice president and Secretary General of China Textile Industry Branch, presided over the meeting.

After the first half of the year, the textile industry association of all countries made full use of the cooperation mechanism of the textile industry in the first half of the year and the second half of the year In the discussion.

First of all, the Deputy Secretary General of Cambodian garment making Association introduced the situation. Under the new epidemic situation, the textile industry of Cambodia is facing great difficulties. Since the beginning of the year, about 250 enterprises have been shut down or closed down, and 150000 employees have been unemployed, mainly female workers. According to GMAC survey, it is estimated that only 30% of the orders of member enterprises in the third quarter of this year will be the same as that of last year, and the rest will decline to varying degrees. Less than 20% of the members are expected to have flat orders in the fourth quarter. Due to the cancellation of EBA tariff preferential measures, the export prices of Cambodian clothing products to the EU market have increased relatively, and the orders from the EU have decreased significantly. In order to save the cost, many clothing production enterprises stop production. In this way, the government will help the Cambodian enterprises to resist the impact of the epidemic by providing a minimum wage of US $40 per month to help the enterprises concerned resist the impact of the epidemic.

Eddie, the central executive committee of Myanmar Garment Association, and Rosaline, Secretary General of Myanmar Garment Association, respectively introduced the situation of Myanmar. Myanmar garment industry has experienced the shortage of raw materials due to the epidemic situation in China from January to February, and the shutdown stage after the outbreak in Myanmar in March. After the new year's holiday in April, Myanmar began to return to work and give birth again, but the absenteeism rate of many workers due to the epidemic situation and other factors increased significantly. Judging from the export data, Myanmar's overall clothing export declined slightly in the first six months, mainly due to the relatively normal production in other time except for the production stop in March to April. In particular, Myanmar's garment exports increased in May due to the epidemic situation. The epidemic has a great impact on Myanmar's economy, and the sharp reduction of orders in Europe and the United States has caused a great blow to the future development of the clothing industry. According to the survey, 70% of garment factories are not confident that orders will return to the previous level. At present, many enterprises are also looking for new development path of epidemic prevention materials such as masks.

Laos has a small clothing industry, which is also the largest affected by the epidemic. The chairman of xbanayh Port Industry Association said that the high degree of dependence on the import of raw materials caused by the outbreak of xbanayh led to the closure of the old clothing industry. Affected by the epidemic situation, imports from Thailand, China, Vietnam and other places are relatively smooth, but the import inspection is extremely strict. Since April, only the epidemic prevention work meets the requirements, and there are staff dormitories or factories where employees live near the factory can get the work permit for production, so the vitality of the whole industry is seriously insufficient. Some enterprises hope to find new export through changing production of epidemic prevention materials, but due to various reasons such as raw materials and equipment, only three enterprises have successfully changed production. At present, Laos clothing enterprises are generally facing the problem of shortage of orders, and the future development pressure is greater.

Thailand has a relatively complete textile and clothing industry chain, but the impact of the epidemic on Thailand's industry can not be underestimated. According to jumnong, chairman of Thailand's National Textile Industry Federation, the export of Thailand's textile and garment industry has dropped by 17% and the import has dropped by 19%. Among them, imports from China decreased by 12% and imports from ASEAN decreased by 16%. Due to the shortage of orders, Thai textile and garment enterprises mostly adopt the mode of production reduction, and some factories only start operation 4 days a week. The printing and dyeing enterprises with full load operation originally also have the situation of one day shutdown per week. At the same time, the collection of existing orders is also difficult. However, the epidemic may also be a double-edged sword. Some enterprises have made good achievements in developing antibacterial products for export to Japan. Since the beginning of this year, some factories have been looking for new opportunities to expand their production capacity, and more than a dozen new factories have been put into operation. The Thai tex project, supported by the government, is also actively supporting the development of the industry.

On behalf of China, Xu Yingxin, vice president of China Textile Federation, introduced the development of China's textile and garment industry in recent half a year to representatives of other countries' associations. Xu Yingxin said that China was the first region affected by Xinguan epidemic. China's textile and garment industry withstood various pressures and united as one to produce epidemic prevention materials at the time of the outbreak. Through unremitting efforts, at present, it not only meets the needs of domestic anti epidemic, but also actively assists overseas epidemic prevention and control work. At present, China's textile and clothing industry is generally facing the adverse situation of domestic and foreign demand decline. From January to June, China's clothing export decreased by 19.4% year-on-year; although the textile export increased by 27.8%, it was mainly driven by anti epidemic materials such as masks. Since March, the decline rate of China's textile and clothing products has gradually narrowed. From January to June, the retail sales of clothing, footwear, knitwear and textiles of units above the national quota decreased by 19.6% year-on-year, 11.3% lower than that of January to February. The retail sales of online wearing goods decreased by 2.9% year-on-year, 15.2% lower than that in January February. At present, as a bridge, the government has launched a series of measures to help Chinese enterprises. At the same time, many enterprises actively help themselves by optimizing management, innovating products, developing new markets and new channels. At present, the global epidemic situation is still severe, and the pressure faced by the industry is not reduced. China Textile Federation hopes to continue to strengthen cooperation with national associations, unite as one, and work together to ensure the stability of regional supply chain and industrial chain, so as to provide solid support for the revitalization of the global textile and clothing industry.

After the exchange of their own situation, countries began to discuss the strengthening of inter industry cooperation in the Lancang Mekong region. All agreed that it is in the interests of all parties to maintain close communication and cooperation among industries of various countries. Under the impact of the epidemic, no party can be alone. Only by strengthening mutual trust and cooperation can we jointly resist the impact of the epidemic. The associations of various countries have jointly agreed to hold regular inter industry dialogues and adhere to the dialogue and cooperation mechanism of Lancang Mekong textile and garment industry. We also firmly believe that the epidemic will eventually be brought under control, and we are confident that the global textile and garment industry will recover its vitality.