On January 11, the 9th edition of the Economic Daily reported on Hubei, and launched an article “Revitalizing traditional advantageous Industries – Hubei undertakes a survey on the transfer of coastal textile and garment Industry”. Focus on Hubei to seize the new development pattern and the coastal textile and garment industry to transfer opportunities to the central and western regions, and vigorously promote the garment manufacturing industry to high-end, intelligent, and green. Here is the full text:

The textile and garment industry is a basic industry related to People’s Daily life. As a traditional advantageous industry, Hubei textile and garment industry has a long history, solid foundation and distinctive characteristics, but the industrial development has also experienced a low period. In recent years, with the transfer of coastal textile and garment enterprises to the mainland, Hubei has ushered in new opportunities to revitalize the textile industry. Can Hubei seize this wave of new trends and opportunities?

With the reform and opening up, the textile and garment industry has developed rapidly in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang. Since the 1980s, Hubei people have come to the coastal areas to devote themselves to the garment industry, and after several generations of accumulation, they have broken out of their own world.

In recent years, affected by factors such as raw materials, labor costs, and industrial policy adjustments, many coastal textile and garment enterprises have transferred to the mainland. At the same time, a large number of Hubei industrial workers returned to Hubei, providing an opportunity for the “second entrepreneurship” of Hubei garment industry. Hubei attaches great importance to the employment situation of returnees to Hubei, put forward a package plan to revitalize the textile and garment industry in Hubei, planned and built a number of textile and garment parks and gathering areas, and undertook a large number of textile and garment manufacturing enterprises that moved from coastal areas.

How are these relocators doing? What is the future development prospect of Hubei textile and garment industry? Reporters came to Jingmen, Jingzhou, Tianmen, Xiantao, Qianjiang and other places to explore the revitalization of Hubei textile and garment industry.
To undertake the transfer of confidence
Objectively speaking, compared with the coastal provinces, there are shortcomings in the development of textile and garment industry in Hubei. In terms of labor force, the high income of coastal provinces is more attractive to high-quality skilled workers, which forms obvious talent competition with Hubei; In terms of the industrial chain, although the output of yarn and cloth in Hubei is in the forefront of the country, there is a lack of on-chain processing enterprises such as printing and dyeing and supply enterprises such as surface accessories, especially the lack of head enterprises, and the industrial chain is still incomplete. In terms of location and market, coastal areas such as Guangdong and Fujian have more comparative advantages in cross-border e-commerce and other fields.

However, there are also many advantages in the development of textile and garment industry in Hubei. From the perspective of industrial base, the garment industry is the traditional advantageous industry in Hubei, with complete system and complete categories. Wuhan has long been the largest textile industry center in Central China. From the brand point of view, in the 1980s and 1990s, with Hanzheng Street as the birthplace, a group of Han style clothing brands such as Aidi, Red people, and Cat people became famous in the country, standing with the Hangzhou school and the Guangdong school, and “Qianjiang Tailor” is also the golden sign of Hubei. From the perspective of traffic conditions, Hubei is located in the geometric center of China’s economic diamond structure, the Yangtze River flows through, the east-west, north-south backbone transportation lines meet in Wuhan, and Ezhou Huahu Airport, the largest cargo airport in Asia, has been opened. These advantages are the base of Hubei’s development of textile and garment industry.

“From the perspective of development, the transfer of textile and garment industry is an inevitable choice in line with economic laws.” Xie Qing, executive vice president of the China Textile Industry Enterprise Management Association, said that today, the cost of land and labor in coastal areas has increased a lot than in the past, and the development of Hubei textile and garment industry has a long history and has the basis to undertake industrial transfer.

At present, the garment manufacturing industry is moving towards high-end, intelligent and green, the domestic and international markets have undergone profound changes, and the product structure and sales market of China’s textile and garment industry have also changed. Hubei textile and garment industry actively respond to the changes in the market, it is imperative to grasp the market trend to revive the momentum.

“In the coming period, the opportunities of Hubei textile and garment industry outweigh the challenges.” Sheng Yuechun, vice governor of Hubei Province and a member of the leading Party group, said that Hubei has listed the textile and garment industry as one of the nine emerging industrial chains. Data show that in 2022, Hubei’s textile and garment industry has 1,651 enterprises on the regulation, achieving business income of 335.86 billion yuan, ranking fifth in the country, and playing a positive role in ensuring supply, activating domestic demand, improving employment and increasing income.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the adjustment of industrial policies in Guangdong, a large number of skilled workers from Hubei returned to Hubei. According to the feedback of the garment Fashion Industry Association of the Hubei Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong Province, there are about 300,000 people engaged in garment processing in the “Hubei village” in Guangdong, and about 70% of the personnel returned to Hubei at that time. Experts predict that 60% of the 300,000 people in “Hubei villages” will stay in Hubei for employment.

The return of skilled workers provides an opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of Hubei garment industry. In Hubei Province, these migrant workers are not only an urgent employment problem that needs to be solved, but also an effective force for industrial upgrading. In this regard, the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government attach great importance to it and have held several special meetings to study the measures to undertake industrial transfer and promote the development of the textile and garment industry. Sheng Yuechun led and presided over many activities such as the textile and garment technical transformation meeting and the forum for experts in the modern textile and garment industry to solicit opinions, crack the problems, turn the crisis into an opportunity, and draw a blueprint for the second takeoff of Hubei’s garment industry.
Differentiated competitive integration direction
In order to seize and grasp the opportunity of industrial workers returning to their hometown and promote the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of the garment industry, Hubei Province issued the Three-year Action Plan for the high-quality Development of the textile and Garment Industry in Hubei Province (2023-2025), pointing out the direction for the high-quality development of the textile and garment industry.

The “Plan” clearly states that it is necessary to seize the new development pattern and the opportunity for the coastal textile and garment industry to transfer to the central and western regions, adhere to the direction of science and technology, fashion, and green development, pay attention to increasing varieties, improving quality, and creating brands, and strive to make up for short boards and forge long boards.

Guided by the “Plan”, Hubei has made specific plans for the development of the garment industry. Sheng Yuechun said that on the one hand, all localities should focus on industrial advantages, carry out precise investment promotion, counterpart investment promotion, and strengthen the introduction of leading enterprises, well-known brands and new business formats; On the other hand, we need to take the lead in innovation, base ourselves on reality, and deploy and implement a number of industrial upgrading, scientific and technological research, and chain strengthening projects.

The introduction of the “Plan” will undoubtedly add another fire to the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry around the country. The main person in charge of Tianmen City said frankly: “The textile and garment industry is the traditional industry of Tianmen, and the great attention of the provincial Party Committee and the provincial government has added the confidence for further action in each city.”

The main person in charge of the Hubei Economic and Information Department said: “In order to do a good job in the return of textile and garment enterprises and support the high-quality development of the garment industry, Jingzhou, Tianmen, Xiantao, Qianjiang and many other places have introduced policies and measures with high gold content and strong targeting.”

Whether it is from the industry chain or the classification of clothing, the clothing industry has different subdivisions. The development focus of the garment industry in different parts of Hubei Province is different, and the differentiated development of the whole chain and multiple categories in various cities in the province can avoid homogenization and low-end competition, promote the road of differentiation and cooperation, and let each place have its own “main position”.

Wuhan, as a provincial capital, enjoys convenient transportation, a large number of talents, and outstanding advantages in clothing design, commodity trading, scientific research and innovation. Wang Yuancheng, member of the Party Leadership Group and vice mayor of Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, said: “Wuhan strengthens cooperation with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan Textile University and other professional forces in product design, key technologies, and product applications. By cultivating new growth points, we will work hard in the research and development of functional fabrics, new clothing fabrics and industrial textiles to enhance the competitiveness of textile and apparel segments.”

Hankou North Clothing City Phase II live supply chain base is the largest Han clothing supply chain gathering place in Central China. Cao Tianbin, president of Hankou North Group, introduced that the base currently has 143 garment enterprises, including 33 supply chain merchants, 30 platform e-commerce merchants, 2 cross-border e-commerce businesses, and 78 live broadcast teams.

– In Jingzhou, children’s wear has become an important area of the local clothing industry. At the 2023 China Textile and Garment Industry Chain Development Conference held in Jingzhou, more than 5.2 billion yuan of textile and garment projects were signed on the spot, with an agreed investment of about 37 billion yuan. Jingzhou has also played its traditional advantages in the field of baby and children’s clothing to create a golden childhood town.

– “Qianjiang Tailor” is one of the top ten labor service brands in China. In terms of clothing processing, Qianjiang’s production enterprises have cooperated with many clothing brands; Xiantao women’s pants industry scale leading the country, China’s famous women’s pants town Maozui town is located here; Tianmen hopes to further develop in the field of e-commerce, and set up a regional clothing brand “Tianmen clothing”…
A combination of measures to reduce costs
The park is a physical space to undertake industrial transfer, which can gather related industries in the region and form scale advantages. The “Plan” proposes to guide local governments to focus on industrial advantages and characteristics, plan to build key parks, and improve the capacity to undertake. Among them, Xiantao, Tianmen, Jingmen, Xiaogan and other Guangdong clothing industry.

In Xiantao City Maozui Town garment industrial Park, the intelligent production line of the production workshop runs in an orderly manner. On the computer screen, the production of various types of clothing on the assembly line is recorded in detail. “The park covers an area of 5,000 mu, with more than 1.8 million square meters of standardized factories and about 400 garment related enterprises.” Maozui town party secretary Liu Taoyong said.

Production cost accounting is the core issue of enterprise survival. Preferential policies first, effectively reduce the production cost of enterprises, is an important measure for governments at all levels in Hubei to attract garment enterprises to settle back.

Land cost is the main part of enterprise production cost accounting, relatively cheap land price is a major advantage of Hubei compared with the coastal developed provinces. In order to further support the development of relocating enterprises in the initial stage of entrepreneurship, the government’s implementation of rent reduction for enterprises that settle in industrial parks is almost a “must-have dish” in the policies introduced around the country.

“Xiantao regards the textile and garment industry as the primary industry.” Xiantao City, the main person in charge said that Xiantao City to meet the conditions of the clothing production enterprises, according to the size of the enterprise annual rent subsidies for 3 years.

Similar policies are also landing in Qianjiang, Qianjiang Zhonglun Shangge clothing manufacturing Co., LTD., head of Liu Gang told reporters: “At present, the company rented the plant has subsidies, the relocation of enterprises also have preferential policies, so ‘home’ and did not spend much money.”

The logistics cost of clothing enterprises can not be ignored. Since there was no scale effect before, logistics cost was a problem that Hubei garment enterprises needed to focus on. How to reduce logistics costs in Hubei? On the one hand, gather production enterprises to provide convenience for logistics companies to quickly collect express parcels and distribute materials; On the other hand, docking logistics enterprises to provide policy and facility convenience for enterprises.

The government has made great efforts in negotiations with logistics companies. The main person in charge of Tianmen City calculated an account to the reporter: “Before, Tianmen clothing enterprises each logistics cost of more than 2 yuan, higher than Guangdong.” After step by step negotiations, the logistics cost of Tianmen has been reduced by half, even lower than the logistics unit price in Guangdong.”

To implement policies, implementation is the key. The main person in charge of the Hubei Economic and Information Department said that Hubei has deeply implemented the working mechanism of “chain length + chain main + chain creation” and made overall plans to promote the high-quality development of the textile and garment industry. Hubei has built and formed a promotion system led by provincial leaders, coordinated by provincial departments, supported by expert teams, and implemented by special work groups. The special work class is led by the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, with the participation of multiple departments to coordinate and solve major difficulties in industrial development. The transformation and upgrading of the garment industry is booming in Jingchu.
Preferential policies to enterprises
Enterprises are the main body of production and operation activities, and are the new force of transformation and upgrading of Hubei garment industry. After years of struggle outside, many Hubei garment business operators have both the willingness to return to their hometown and the ability to develop their hometown.

Liu Jianyong is the person in charge of Tianmen Yuezi Clothing Co., LTD., who has worked hard in Guangdong for many years and built his own production plant. In March 2021, Liu Jianyong returned to his hometown in Tianmen and founded Yue Zi Clothing Company.

“The atmosphere back home is better.” The atmosphere mentioned by Liu Jianyong, on the one hand, refers to the policy environment, and a series of supportive policies make Liu Jianyong more comfortable; On the other hand, Tianmen’s garment industry foundation is good.

A number of business leaders said that preferential policies are an important factor in attracting them to return home for development.

Qidian Group is a representative clothing manufacturer in Tianmen, which separated part of its business from Guangzhou to develop in Tianmen in 2021. At present, the Group has established a number of companies related to clothing production, involving the supply of surface accessories, clothing production, e-commerce sales and express logistics.

“Orders have been intermittent in the past few years, and the warehousing and personnel costs in Guangzhou are too high, and the losses are severe.” Fei Wen, head of the company, told reporters, “At the same time, Tianmen’s policy moved us, and the government also held a conference in Guangzhou to attract investment and actively engage with enterprises.” Between “push and pull”, returning home has become the most ideal choice.

Liu Gang returned to his hometown to start a business through another path – fellow villagers with fellow villagers. He worked in Guangzhou in 2002 as a tailor. “I moved back to Qianjiang from Guangzhou in May 2022, mainly processing orders for a cross-border e-commerce platform.” Business has been good since coming back, and orders are relatively stable. In addition, there are preferential policies in my hometown, so he advised me to go back and work together.” Liu Gang said that after understanding the situation of the development of small return home, he took the initiative to take this step of returning home.

In addition to the policy environment, family is also an important factor affecting their return home. The reporter’s investigation found that among the returnees, whether they are entrepreneurs or workers, most of them are “after 80″, basically in a state of old and small.

Liu Gang was born in 1987, he told reporters, “Now the children are in primary school, the parents are older. Returning home is for career reasons on the one hand, and to take care of parents and children on the other.”

Enterprises are like wild geese, which determine the employment location of industrial workers. Li Hongxia is an ordinary sewing worker, 20 years old from the south to the north to work, now in her 40s. “After all these years, I have no time to take care of my family. A number of clothing enterprises returned to increase employment opportunities in my hometown, and my husband and I discussed coming back to work, but also to take care of the elderly and children. At present, I earn about 10,000 yuan a month.” Li Hongxia said.
The results are beginning to show strong momentum
At present, the textile and garment industry in Hubei is gradually building the supply chain and deeply reshaping the industrial chain along the development direction of “science and technology, fashion and green”, thus promoting the improvement of the value chain and realizing the high-quality development of the industry. With the implementation of various policy measures, the textile and garment industry in Hubei has shown some positive changes.

The degree of industrial agglomeration has been further improved. On the basis of the previous accumulation, the agglomeration development effect of Hubei garment industry group is obvious. Wuhan, Jingzhou, Tianmen, Xiantao, Qianjiang and other places have formed a certain scale of garment manufacturing agglomeration area. A number of famous industrial cities such as Hanchuan, China’s famous garment manufacturing City, Cenhe Town, China’s famous women’s pants town, Maozui Town, and Tianmen City, China’s garment e-commerce industry Demonstration base, have emerged.

In Tianmen, the white horse original clothing production e-commerce base is under construction. Wang Zhonghua, chairman of Baima Group, said: “At present, the leasing and sales of the company’s plants are good, and most of them have been sold.”