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China Textile City attracts buyers from around the world. |
"Keqiao seeks to be a global textile centre," declares Zhou Rusheng, Chairman of the China Textile City Construction and Management Committee.
China Textile City offers the world's largest variety of fabrics, home and industrial textiles. The next step is to upgrade.
Already, the Textile City provides the largest distribution centre for textiles in China. It's also the largest specialised textile market in Asia and the largest textile trading centre globally.
There are over 20,000 shops and 19,000 trading companies dealing in fabrics of nearly all kinds. It's visited by 100,000 people daily and products are sold in 187 countries and regions.
In fact, a quarter of global trade in textiles takes place through the market, which has ties with nearly half of all textile enterprises in the country. Annual turnover at Textile City exceeds Rmb60 billion.
As Zhou Rusheng says, there are five major textile centres in the world and they are all in other countries. China has the largest textile output, but it can't compete where it comes to brands and technology.
For example, CK, a US brand, uses fabrics sourced from China Textile City and can sell undergarments costing just over Rmb10 and up to hundreds of yuan per unit.
Textile enterprises in Shaoxing have first-rate equipment, but their technologies still need improvement. They have to work on technological and brand innovation, according to industry observers.
Some textile enterprises are beginning to realise the importance of brand competition. With the government attaching increasing importance to this, the city implemented a new mode of corporate management with emphasis on protection of intellectual property rights, guidance for the fostering of technological innovation, brand-building, fashion creation and integration of industrial chains, and achieved good results.
"With the completion of supply chains in such fields as design, production and marketing, Keqiao is set to become a global textile centre," says Zhou Rusheng.
"The world looks to China, China looks to Zhejiang and Zhejiang looks to Keqiao in the textile industry" - that's the catchword of the Keqiao China Textile City.
from Shirley Pan, Hangzhou Office
(Image courtesy of Xinhua News Agency)
