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| Portfolio |
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Mr. Bo Xilai's portfolio covers the overall affairs of the Ministry of commerce.
He is particularly in charge of the General Office and the Department of Human Resources. |
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Add:No.2 Dong Chang'an Avenue,Beijing China (100731)
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| Speech of Minister Bo Xilai at the 3rd Global Textile Business Forum |
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| 2006-05-16 09:27 MOFCOM |
Distinguished Vice Chairman Xu Kuangdi,
Distinguished President Du Yuzhou,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends:
It is my pleasure to attend the 3rd Global Textile Business Forum. I believe that 2005 is a special year for the textile industry in China and the world at large. Going through the sensitive transformation period from the old to the new trading system, no matter the industries, or the intermediary agencies, or the government departments, have all felt the difficulties of adjustment. However, what is encouraging is we still made outstanding achievements despite of a great number of problems encountered. Global textile trade kept an annual growth of 6.5%. Most developing countries have been benefited from the textile trade integration. The exchanges among countries have been enhanced. Facts show that textile integration serves the long-term interests of all WTO members, which plays a positive role in the effective allocation of resources, and in promoting the technical advancement and restructuring of the textile industry.
As a big textile producer, consumer and exporter in the world, China attracted more attention in the past year than ever. In 2005, with the concerted efforts of all parties, China achieved a steady textile export overcoming such difficulties as frequent trade frictions, price rise of raw material and energy shortage. The textile industry, as a traditional and pillar industry in China, made great contributions to the economic and social development of the country and even the whole world at large. Let me take this opportunity to share with you the following points:
1, China’s textile industry is a thoroughly people’s-livelihood-related industry. In 2005, the industry directly employed close to 20 million people, 70% of which came from rural areas. The industry consumed 7.3 million tons of domestically produced natural fiber, which directly related to the livelihood of 100 million farmers. It is fair to say that for a developing country like China with a huge number of poor people, the textile industry is of crucial importance, as it has a bearing on the jobs, income and lives of hundreds of millions of low-income people.
2, The development of China’s textile industry extensively benefits consumers and businesses in the same industry in all countries. The Chinese textile industry provides a big amount of commodities with high quality and good price for consumers in the whole world, who can really enjoy the merits of international division of labor and free trade. According to the estimate of Morgan Stanley, US consumers have saved US$100 billion every year since 1997 owing to the huge import of high-quality and low-priced products from China and other Eastern Asian countries. On top of that, foreign companies have also gained most of the market returns from brand royalties, marketing, and other processes, since Chinese companies can only get less than 10% processing fee. In addition, as one of earliest liberalized industry, the Chinese textile industry also attracted a lot of foreign investment. The export of textile products by foreign investment enterprises now accounts for over one third of China’s total textile exports, and 70% of the export growth after the elimination of quota in 2005 was attributable to foreign investment enterprises, which have contributed not only to China’s GDP and employment growth, but also to the considerable increase of the investing countries’ GNP.
3, The Chinese textile industry has pushed forward the common development of the related industries in other countries. In the past 5 years, China altogether invested US$18.8 billion in the import of textile equipment, and in 2005 alone, China imported US$23.5 billion worth of sewing machine, cotton, wool, dyestuff and other chemicals, and chemical fiber and its monomer, among which the import of textile raw material and some processed products reached 12.87 million tons, cotton 2.57 million tons, representing 34% of the total global cotton trade. From the US only, China imported 1.2 million tons of cotton. It is predicted that China will import about 4 million tons of cotton till 2010.The Chinese textile machinery market is also continuously growing.
4, The increasing domestic consumption in China offers unprecedented opportunities for the development of the global textile industry. China is now the biggest consumer of textile products in the world. Its per capita fiber consumption increased from 7.5 kg. in 2000 to 14 kg in 2005, nearly doubled. The garment consumption rose from RMB337.5 billion to RMB682.6 billion, an annual increase of over 15%. According to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, China's per capita GDP will reach US$2700 in 2010, when the fiber consumption per head will rise to 18 kg. The Chinese rural market with 900 million population will also be further explored. It means a period of fast textile consumption expansion, in which I believe, textile producers from all countries will be able to find business opportunities and profit in China.
Ladies and Gentlemen, amidst rapid development, the Chinese textile industry also suffers from many problems, which we need to carefully study and solve.
1, Small R&D input and weak innovation capability. According to figures from the 2004 industry annual survey, the R&D to revenue percentage of large Chinese textile companies is only 0.25%.
2, Low added value and insufficient proprietary brands. The Chinese textile industry is still at the processing stage in the global industry chain, which features the extensive growth mode and low level of export in general. The average profit margin of Chinese textile exporters is only 3% to 5%. Most exports are OEM or ODM products, while only 10% are products with our own brands.
3, Relatively outdated key technologies and equipment.
Against the background of economic globalization nowadays, quantitative expansion is not the goal China pursues. As a big responsible trading nation, China has always been dedicating to making contributions to the healthy development of the global textile trade. The Chinese government will take positive steps to encourage its companies to improve the quality of their products, transform the growth mode, and seek for ways of common development of all countries and regions by promoting the exchanges and cooperation, and taking advantage of each other's strengths. In the coming years, the Chinese government will make efforts in the following aspects:
1, To strongly push forward the technological advancement and industrial upgrading. We will encourage corporations to make more technical input, get rid of outdated equipment, and improve the efficiency of resources utilization, the quality of environment and labor productivity. Companies will be encouraged to develop new textile materials and advanced processing technologies, upgrade the traditional textile processing techniques, and more extensively use ecologically sound textiles and energy saving and environment friendly technologies.
2, To enhance IPR protection, which is equally important for both Chinese and foreign companies. The IPR protection mechanism will be fully utilized to promote technical renovation.
3, To endeavor to nurture and popularize Chinese companies’ proprietary brands. The government will encourage companies to develop their own brands by means of such activities as “Name Brand Protection Campaign” and Proprietary Brands Exhibitions so that China will come up with a group of name brands that are well recognized by the consumers.
4, To make better efforts in industrial standardization. Domestic intermediary textile agencies are encouraged to establish and popularize, after extensively soliciting the opinions of the business community, corporate social responsibility management system and quality control system that are compatible with the practical situation of the Chinese textile industry. They are also encouraged to take an active part in the formulation of international rules.
5, To support corporations in investing abroad. Facilitations will be offered to support corporations to set up R&D centers, manufacturing, marketing and after-sales service network. We will also identify priorities for the establishment of “Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone” to strengthen the economic and trade cooperation with developing countries, create local employment opportunities, and achieve win-win outcome.
6, To encourage domestic enterprises to exchange information with their foreign partners. Efforts will be made to create conditions for business dialogues, and opportunities for Chinese companies to learn the advanced experiences from their foreign partners in design, R&D, marketing and other areas by means of studying tours, training programs, forums and seminars.
7, To give full play to the role of intermediary institutions like trade associations. Trade associations should fully play their role as a bridge connecting the government and businesses. The government will also support the intermediary organizations to establish partnership and non-governmental dialogue mechanism with their foreign counterparts.
8, To set up and improve an early warning and monitoring system in the textile industry.
The Global Textile Business Forum is a great event organized by China National Textile Association. It is a good platform for all participants to express their views, and be enlightened by the opinions of others. There are a lot of human talents in the textile industry, who have rich experience, quick information, and good connection with different companies, and who represent the direct interests of the industry, and serve as indispensable bridge between the government and the business circle. The Ministry of Commerce is keen to strengthen the connection with you and listen to your opinions and suggestions regularly.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In the era of in-depth economic globalization, countries all over the world are faced with the unprecedented challenges. However it will not change our direction to pursue free and fair trade.
China is willing to maintain the orderly and steady development of world textile industry after the integration. We firmly oppose trade protectionism and will safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese textile enterprises. Meanwhile, on the basis of mutual benefit and win-win outcome, we will actively seek for common development of all countries and regions. We hope all nations can continue to, on the basis of cool-mindedness, equity and openness, jointly shoulder the responsibility to promote global free trade. The developed countries should take a positive stance toward the challenges, respect the due rights and benefits of developing countries in the textile trade, and ensure a single principle of fair and free trade and single internal and external standard. The developing countries should also be more open-minded in participating in the international competition and cooperation in order to create larger liberalization and development space on the basis of improve competitiveness in the process.
I wish the Forum a great success!
Thanks!
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