ASEAN And China Strengthen Cooperation In Textile Industry

The seminar on China ASEAN economic cooperation in the global epidemic situation was held recently. Xu Ningning, executive director of the China ASEAN Business Council, and Zhang Jiuhuan, former director of the Asia Department of the Ministry of foreign affairs of China, former Chinese ambassador to Singapore and former Chinese ambassador to Thailand, addressed the meeting successively. Wang Yu, vice president of China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, suggested to strengthen the cooperation between trade associations of both sides.

Vice president Wang Yu said that over the past decade or so, ASEAN countries have been undertaking labor-intensive processing procedures in China's textile and garment industry, and China Centered regional supply chain of textile and clothing has gradually taken shape. In his speech, he analyzed the following characteristics of China ASEAN textile and garment trade:

First, ASEAN has increasingly become China's major trading partner. As an emerging market, ASEAN has surpassed Japan since 2013 and has become the third largest market for China's textile and garment exports. Among the top three trade partners, the EU, the United States and ASEAN, ASEAN has seen the fastest growth rate. According to the statistics of China Customs, the trade volume of textile and clothing between China and ASEAN has increased from US $16.39 billion in 2010 to US $46.38 billion in 2019, an increase of 2.8 times. China's textile and clothing exports to ASEAN increased from 14.8 billion US dollars in 2010 to 39.12 billion US dollars in 2019, an increase of 2.6 times.

Second, China's garment processing industry has transferred to ASEAN countries. In Myanmar, there are more than 400 Chinese garment factories, which are still growing rapidly. A large number of Chinese garment enterprises have gathered in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Third, China's textile supply chain still forms a strong support for ASEAN countries. ASEAN countries have undertaken a large number of garment orders transfer. Due to the domestic industrial structure, infrastructure and other reasons, China has been playing a pivotal role in the supply chain of clothing raw materials and accessories.

Since March this year, Wang Yu, vice president of ASEAN, has been seriously affected by the global demand for textile industry. Moreover, due to the spread of the epidemic in Southeast Asia and the upgrading of epidemic prevention measures in various countries, many garment factories are under pressure to close down, and the procurement of yarn fabrics from China by ASEAN countries has also declined significantly. From January to April this year, China exported 5.5 billion US dollars of textile yarn and fabrics to ASEAN, a year-on-year decrease of 22.15%. Among them, in April, the textile yarn and fabric exports decreased by 33% year-on-year.

Vice president Wang Yu analyzed that after the Spring Festival, China's textile and garment upstream enterprises returned to work and production delay, which directly led to factory stoppage and export decline in many Southeast Asian countries due to the shortage of raw materials and supporting products. With the spread of the epidemic abroad, the main export markets in Europe and the United States have been seriously affected. Global demand has decreased and orders are seriously insufficient. Buyers postpone or cancel orders, and a large number of enterprises in Southeast Asian countries encounter return, reduction, delay in delivery and payment of clothing orders. At the same time, the outbreak of the epidemic in Southeast Asia, isolation and prevention and control measures gradually upgraded, many factories were forced to shut down due to anti epidemic measures.

Wang Yu, vice president of China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, together with some ASEAN countries and under the initiative of the international garment alliance, issued a joint appeal to the whole world, hoping that the global clothing supply chain and stakeholders would unite to seek solutions and reduce the damage to suppliers.

He said that China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce will strengthen cooperation with relevant trade associations of ASEAN countries, help enterprises cope with the epidemic situation from the industry level, and promote the sound development of textile and clothing production and trade between the two sides.

The seminar on China ASEAN economic cooperation in the global epidemic situation was held in the form of video and hosted by the China ASEAN Business Council. Xu Ning, director general of ASEAN, pointed out that it is necessary to enhance the cooperation between the executive departments and the executive departments of ASEAN, and it is necessary to enhance the cooperation between the executive departments and the executive departments of ASEAN.

Liu Xin, executive secretary of the ASEAN Business Council, presided over the current epidemic situation analysis meeting of ASEAN countries. In recent years, the two sides have held a number of meetings on the cooperation between the two sides, including the China textile industry cooperation mechanism.

At the meeting, representatives of China and ASEAN countries unanimously expressed their confidence in fighting the epidemic and the need to strengthen economic cooperation.