Investigation on Xinjiang textile industry: From government pushing to self-recycling,entering a new stage of development

Since the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region developed the textile industry to drive employment for four years, the industrial scale has been expanded, the structure has been continuously optimized, and the industrial chain has been extended as well.

In 2018, under the guidance of the 19th CPC National Congress and the spirit of the Central Economic Working Conference, how can the textile industry in Xinjiang seize new opportunities, present new trends and undertake new missions?

On the afternoon of March 19th, Xia Lingmin, Vice Chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Council, Li Jincai, Deputy Secretary General of China National Textile and Apparel Council, Guo Hongyi,Chief Engineer of China Textile Planning Institute of Construction, and Xu Jianhua, Vice President of China National Textile and Apparel Council Circulation Branch, Chen Baojian, Chief Engineer of Textile Product Development Center, as well as a reporter from China Textile arrived at Yining Airport and met with Xie Qing, Deputy Director of Commission of Economy and Information Technology of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Li Changqing, Member of Party Committee of Textile Industry Administrative Office and General Party Branch Secretary of the Office and Zou Wei, Principal Staff Member of Textile Industry Administrative Office, and initiated a 5-day special investigation of Xinjiang textile and clothing industry.

This investigation aims to deeply understand and summarize the results and experience, the main problems and the key challenges facing the development of Xinjiang textile and clothing industry, well support and serve Xinjiang to develop the textile and clothing industry to drive employment more accurately and effectively, achieve targeted poverty alleviation, and earnestly promote the higher quality and more sustainable development of Xinjiang textile and clothing industry.

From the afternoon of 19th to the morning of 21st, the research group visited more than ten enterprises in many places of two states, and acquired an in-depth knowledge of the development status of industrial parks.

Yining

Practitioner of city-industry integration

Accompanied by Hu Zhaofa, Member and Deputy Director of Leading Party Group of Commission of Economy and Information Technology of Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili and Cao Zhongqin,Head of Urban Office of Commission of Economy and Information Technology, the research group first arrived in Yining County, and visited the light textile industrial zone in Yining County together with Zhang Hua, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee of Yining County and Leader of Nantong Xinjiang-supporting working group.

As the practitioner of city-industry integration,Yining County’s “prospering city by production and prospering industry by city” is quite fruitful.

The light textile industrial district of Yining County is located in the south of Yining County, and the total planned area is 5,700 mu, presenting a pattern of “one district and two parks”, wherein the home textile clothing industrial park is located in the southwest of the county with the planned area of 1,500 mu,and it mainly focuses on the production and processing of clothes and home textiles; the southern side of Nanxin District of the weaving industrial park covers a planned area of 4,200 mu, and it mainly focuses on the production of gray fabrics.

In the park, the research group visited four companies. Ili Zhuowan Garments Manufacturing Co.,Ltd., which mainly produces gloves, is headquartered in Hebei province with an annual output of 2.5 million pairs of gloves. At present, there are more than 500 employees in the enterprise, among whom Uygur employees account for 45%; Ili Botena Clothing Co.,Ltd. from Bozhou, Anhui mainly produces all sorts of knitted fabrics; Xinjiang local enterprise Shisu Scientific and Educational Goods Co., Ltd. mainly produces students’ school uniforms. At present, the enterprise has 29 businessmen in North and South Xinjiang, and it adopts the production mode of receiving orders;Xinyi Sanrun Garment Company, headquartered in Nantong, Jiangsu province, mainly exports Japanese beach shorts, it currently has more than 130 workers,and after all products are put into production, the number of employees is planned to be around 1,000.

At the symposium that followed, Zhang Hua introduced that, the light textile industrial district plans to realize the four goals of “building big platforms, developing big industries, promoting large employment and realizing great stability”, and plans the construction of relevant facilities at the beginning of construction, including workers’ dormitories, restaurants, couples’rooms, etc., and currently the stability rate of enterprise staff settled reaches over 95%. Zhang Hua said that, the pain points of Nantong are the advantages of Yining, and the two places complement each other to a large extent.

In the meanwhile, Zhang Hua also raised the issues such as yarn subsidies for face and auxiliary materials in Xinjiang, labor employment training and infrastructure investment, and put forward suggestions such as incorporating industrial parks into key support projects, increasing the support of preferential policies and accelerating the implementation of various preferential policies.

Xia Lingmin expressed that the construction of the industrial district has made certain achievements, it can be seen that the investment of cotton-spinning enterprises in Xinjiang has made a substantial transformation, and achieved obvious results in employment. At the same time, he made some suggestions. First of all, the capacity of cotton spinning should not be expanded further, otherwise the resource advantages will be lost easily; secondly, no matter how the policy is made, the original policy can not be arbitrarily changed, we should let enterprises and employees have confidence in the government; furthermore, enterprises should clearly realize that they need to initially rely on policy support, and eventually depend on the market to go further. In this regard, China National Textile and Apparel Council will continue to work with the units at all levels to help the local place do the job well and assist companies to solve problems.

Khorgos

Promoter of border trade

Before arriving at Khorgos Port, the research group first visited Xinjiang Hongdou Clothing Co.,Ltd. As a well-known enterprise in mainland China,Hongdou responded to the call of “The Belt and Road”, started construction in the supporting area of Sino-Kazakhstan Border Cooperation Center in Khorgos in 2015 and put into operation in 2016. Factory Director Zhou Weixin introduced that Xinjiang Hongdou produced soft Hongdou velvet products in winter and smooth Hongdou cotton products in summer,and its employees has basically stabilized at present.In this regard, Xia Lingmin once again stressed that enterprises should respond to the national call to increase employment in Xinjiang on the one hand, and seek their own development on the other hand so as to truly promote employment and achieve sustainable development.

At Khorgos International Convention and Exhibition Center under construction, the research group learned that after the convention and exhibition center with a total construction area of more than 115,000 square meters has been put into use,all Chinese textile products can be exhibited here,Kazakhstan merchants can enter it without passports,which effectively saves logistics costs and promotes bilateral trade.

In the Sino-Kazakhstan Khorgos Yiwu International Trade City, the research group met Kazakhstan merchants who took the regular bus to purchase goods in the early morning. According to the introduction, the trade city is mainly trading home textile products mainly, business sales can be exempted from tax and there is a daily passenger flow of 3,000 people on average. The Kazakhstan side can bring out 50 kilograms of duty-free goods every day, and 150 tons of goods can be traded every day. In the off season, the daily turnover is 2 to 3 million yuan, and in the peak season, it can reach up to 7 to 8 million yuan, 70% of which are home textile bedclothes.

Focusing on the trade city, the China-Kazakhstan border opened a dedicated shuttle bus, and at the same time, many mainland companies build factories around the border, and the mode of “having stores in front and factories behind” is gradually taking shape.

The research group suggested that the trade city need to further connect with mainland enterprises in order to stimulate bilateral trade of other commodities.

Subsequently, the research group visited the clothing and apparel industrial park of Huocheng County, and in Ili Jinteng Knitwear Co., Ltd.,the research group learned that the enterprise has 144 sets of computerized flat knitting machines, 200 employees, it mainly produces military knitted apparel supplies, and implements three shifts at present - enterprise development has been fully on the right track.

Jinghe

Forerunner of differentiated development

Leaving Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili, the research g roup went to Jinghe County, and visited 6 enterprises and Jinghe Industrial Park accompanied by Li Xinguang, Deputy Governor of Bozhou and Ye Jiaqiang, Member of CPC Committee Member of Jinghe County and Secretary of Party Working Committee of Jinghe Industrial Park, and held a symposium as well. By borrowing authority, strength and position, Jinghe County took the lead to introduce carpet enterprises, geotextile enterprises, food bag enterprises and ball / inner lining enterprises, and embarked on a special and differentiated development road.

Weilang Industrial Co., Ltd., which was completed and put into production in 2015, mainly produces various types of work clothes. The employees are basically stable, its technology reaches a certain level, and employees’ average wage is 2,600- 2,700 yuan and up to 6,000 yuan at most. The research group learned that employees’ living habits are all changing and they have been gradually transformed into industrial workers, realizing employment in the real sense. Sankun Import and Export Trading Co., Ltd. is a luggage enterprise, and it is currently training employees in southern Xinjiang. The enterprise adopts order production and all products are exported. Chuxin Agricultural Development Co.,Ltd. was put into operation in February 2016, the corresponding country of Hubei Xiangyang Huiyuan Agriculture and Forestry Co., Ltd. and the People’s Government of Hubei province assisted Xinjiang in the industry and supported the development of Xinjiang textile industry, and the People’s Government of Jinghe County attracted capital and settled in it.

Yulin Geotextile Materials Co., Ltd. was put into production in July 2017, it mainly produces geotextiles, composite geomembranes, geogrids, geotechnique grids, etc., and at present the enterprise has been in the government's procurement directory. Xia Lingmin, in particular, said that geotextile materials were blank in Xinjiang before, and that if enterprises want to seize the first opportunity, they will have great prospects in the future. The most important thing is that the quality of enterprise products must reach the standards, and and it is required to form the multi-winning pattern of government winning, enterprise winning and staff winning.

Haiying Carpet Co., Ltd. is invested and built by Tianjin’s Wuqing Company, and at present, there is only this one enterprise of the same kind in Xinjing. The main products are inkjet printing carpets and lawn carpets and all the products are exported to the Europe market. The person in charge of the enterprise suggested that, compared with Wuqing,Tianjing, it reduces the time cost by half in exporting from Xinjiang.

At the later symposium, the problems and suggestions put forward by the enterprises mainly focus on two aspects, namely, large labor mobility and difficulty in training and, and the slow implementation of policy subsidies. In this respect,Xie Qing said that Xinjiang textile has been developed for nearly four years, it is now in the new development stage and new adjustment period, there are many new challenges, and all jobs should regard employment as the starting point and accurate poverty alleviation as the premise. The problems of high staff mobility and difficult training need to be jointly solved by the government and enterprises together; the slow implementation of policy subsidies involves all aspects, enterprises should have confidence in the government, and also take the initiative to face problems and meet difficulties, aim at their own long-term development and future prospects and be sure that enterprises are the main body and the government is the guide.

Xia Lingmin first affirmed the development status of the textile industry in Jinghe County: the park has formed a good development situation, and its development potential is worth looking forward to; it has not just focused on the cotton spinning industry, but has initially formed a diversified and differentiated development pattern; the production of enterprises is gradually stable, and they have great confidence in the development of the industry; the government attaches great importance and provides “nanny-like” services with strong support. At the same time, he put forward some suggestions on the development of Xinjiang enterprises: Xinjiang enterprises should be consistent with mainland enterprises, take high-quality development routes, pursue high added value, and focus on market demands, they cannot keep a close watch on policy advantages and subsidies, but strive to enhance market competitiveness and aim at long-term development; enterprises should improve the management level, and seize the opportunity of policy support to speed up the improvement. Employees’ qualities are trained, no matter how mobile it is, there will eventually be employees retained, and in this process, the government will certainly play a boosting role, but it is mainly by enterprises themselves; enterprises should speed up the pace of going out, to the mainland, to the exhibitions and abroad, so as to broaden their horizons.

Members of the research group also indicated in succession that the textile industry in Xinjiang has entered a new stage of development, and the objective difficulties must be solved by enterprises taking measures according to local conditions, putting themselves in the subjects’ own positions, and changing their thinking as well. In this process, enterprises should occupy a dominant position, from the original simple government pushing into self-circulation, forming a long-term, sustainable development capacity.