High-qualification and low-reduction reforms provide textile companies with a policy environment

March is a busy month for China Textile Federation. First of all, the China Textile Industry Federation's seven research groups, a total of hundreds of people went to more than 30 clusters, visited about 300 companies, together with the issues facing the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and the trend of the industry this year were discussed.

According to the results of the Federation's spring survey this year, the orders and start-up conditions of the enterprises are basically normal. Although some small and medium-sized enterprises started after the Spring Festival later than last year, the operating rate of large-scale production enterprises reached 80%. Since January of this year, the export tax rebate rate for the textile and garment industry has increased, and Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hebei, Henan and other provinces have successively implemented the reform of “high-learning and low-buckle” to provide a favorable policy environment for textile and garment enterprises and enhance the Development confidence.

The Spring Exhibition held on March 18th made its debut in Shanghai. We moved from Beijing to Shanghai and integrated four exhibitions together. We have done a lot of preparatory work. The exhibition area of ​​220,000 square meters, as well as the exhibition scale of more than 4,000 companies from more than 30 countries, has won the recognition of domestic and foreign exhibitors, which has increased the confidence of the industry.

In 2014, the value added of textile enterprises showed a trend of single digit growth. This is no problem, but the key is how to improve the quality and efficiency of the industry.

Statistics show that the overall operation of the three terminal industries of clothing, home textiles, and industrial use has improved, which is superior to the front end of the industrial chain. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, market structure factors, three- and four-tier cities and rural markets supporting the development of the industry; on the other hand, raw materials markets have been declining all the way, which has had some impact on the front end of the industry chain. This year’s research found that both the start of business, order status, and the entrepreneurial confidence index all reflect the relatively stable development of the industry. Even this year, there will be some slight increase.

Although China's growth potential need not be questioned, overall, the external situation faced by the textile industry this year is still more complicated. There are favorable conditions such as a gradual recovery of the international economy and comprehensive domestic deepening reforms, as well as insufficient domestic demand growth and increased international competition. With many risk factors, the industry’s task of promoting growth, restructuring, and improving quality and efficiency is still arduous.

First of all, from the point of view of production factors, the implementation of direct supplement measures for cotton planting will promote the gradual adjustment of the domestic and foreign cotton price gaps to a reasonable range, which will help ensure the supply of textile raw materials and stabilize the industry's operating situation in the long run. However, the domestic cotton market will remain in a period of volatility adjustment for a period of time, and textile companies are still facing uncertainty risks such as the large price difference between domestic and foreign cotton, and an increase in cotton prices and inventory losses.

With the increase in consumption in the domestic market, it is difficult to significantly increase the total consumption of clothing as a necessity of daily necessities. It is expected that the growth rate of domestic demand for retail sales will be basically the same as in 2014. Consumers' individualized and differentiated consumer demand for textile and clothing products will become domestic demand. The main changes in consumption characteristics. In addition, the recruitment of workers in a considerable number of regions this year has improved compared to last year. The problems that enterprises focus on are still difficulties in financing and high financing costs. Not only small and medium-sized enterprises but also large companies have the same problems.

Looking to the world, in 2015, the overall slow recovery of the world economy is unlikely to change. Among them, the growth of demand for textile and apparel products from developed countries is limited; on the other hand, due to the macroeconomic fluctuations in emerging markets, the situation of a sharp decline in demand growth is also difficult to improve. In spite of this, China's introduction of a policy of increasing the tax rebate rate for textile and apparel exports has a certain incentive effect for enterprises.

Innovation-driven transformation towards the mid-to-high end This year's government work report stated that “manufacturing is China’s dominant industry, and we must implement 'Made in China 2025' and accelerate the transition from manufacturing to a manufacturing power”. The textile industry is also facing the urgent task of transitioning from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing powerhouse. It needs to speed up the technological transformation in traditional production areas, resolve some excess production capacity, implement innovation-driven development strategies in an all-round way, promote the deep integration of industrialization and informatization, and promote the textile industry. The development is moving towards the middle and high level.

After this investigation, our common feeling is that the power conversion is accelerating and innovation is the key. At present, many companies have a good practice in driving innovation. For example, Changzhou Far East Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. has implemented the use of computers to remotely monitor the operation and maintenance of products. In addition, machine substitutions are also being implemented in some provinces and cities, and the effect is very good. It not only reduces the employment, but also improves the quality and comprehensive level of the product. We need to sum up and refine it, and accelerate the industry's innovation in technology, design, R&D, and marketing in the year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan.

The textile industry should form a good environment for innovation and fully implement innovation-driven development strategies. At present, the textile industry faces two major challenges in implementing innovation-driven strategies. One is the innovation of business models, and the transition from production to production services. The second is innovation in science and technology research and development. Technological innovation in the textile industry is still faced with relatively weak basic research and lack of basic support for industrial innovation. The bottleneck of the combination of technology and economy needs to be broken, especially for the advanced and applicable technologies and achievements that are of great importance to the transformation and upgrading of the industry. For example, digital and intelligent equipment, high-performance textiles, and advanced and applicable energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies all require greater development. For single companies undertaking difficult development projects, the Federation will increase its efforts to conduct cross-sectoral, cross-industry joint innovation and play a greater role.

In addition, it is necessary to actively carry out the "Internet + Textile" initiative to promote digital, network, and intelligent development of the industry. "Internet Plus" must be a priority for the "13th Five-Year Plan". We need to clarify our thinking and find the key points. "Intelligent manufacturing is based on smart factories as the carrier, intelligent manufacturing at the core of key manufacturing links, and advanced manufacturing methods supported through network interconnection, which can effectively shorten product development cycles, reduce operating costs, improve product quality, and reduce resource and energy consumption. To become a global manufacturing development trend is also the main direction for China in the next period to advance the deep integration of the two industries.The textile industry should seize the new opportunities of a new round of industry, speed up integration into the “Internet+” action plan, and promote the mobile Internet and cloud. Combining computing, big data, internet of things, and textile and garment manufacturing to promote the healthy development of e-commerce, and guide textile and apparel companies to use the internet to further expand the international market.The textile industry under the “Internet thinking” should make full use of and play a role in interconnectivity. To build a new ecology in the textile industry and promote industrial transformation and upgrading.