China And ASEAN 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's textile trade, the trade volume increased from 46.8 billion US dollars in 2019 to 16.32 billion US dollars in 2010. 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.

Canada 2 has transferred a large number of garment industries 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.

On the impact of the epidemic on the main textiles and garments of both sides, vice president Wang Yu said that since March this year, the global epidemic has spread and demand has shrunk, and ASEAN manufacturing orders have been seriously affected. 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 situation in Europe and the United States, overseas demand has been seriously affected. 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. In his speech, Xu Ningning, executive director of the China ASEAN Business Council, pointed out that in international cooperation, business associations have the advantages of bridge, network, flexibility and representativeness. Giving full play to this advantage is the need to enhance inter enterprise cooperation, to help inter national government departments to cooperate with each other, and to cooperate with each other between government departments and enterprises.

Liu Xin, Executive Secretary General of China ASEAN Business Council, analyzed the current epidemic situation in ASEAN countries when he presided over the meeting. The China ASEAN Business Council is one of the dialogue and cooperation mechanisms between the two sides. In recent years, it has focused on promoting the industrial docking and cooperation between the two sides, including organizing the textile and clothing merchants association of both sides to hold cooperation meetings.

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