Opportunities amidst crisis, Chinese clothing will speed up the pace of building a clothing power

The year 2009 will be a more noteworthy year in the development history of China’s garment industry. The international financial crisis has not yet bottomed out, and its serious consequences will further emerge, making the external environment even more severe. But at the same time, there are opportunities amidst crisis, and Chinese clothing will accelerate the pace of building a clothing power.
It was learned from the China Garment Association that the current overall situation of China’s garment industry is that the industry is facing structural adjustment and upgrading; the export situation is severe and competition in the domestic market is becoming increasingly fierce and will become the focus of development. How to build a superior clothing brand with creativity as the core, with the goal of increasing the brand contribution rate and technological contribution rate of product value, will be an important issue for the future development of the clothing industry.
Jiang Hengjie, executive vice president of the China National Garment Association, believes that China’s clothing market will accelerate development in 2009, encouraged by policies to boost domestic demand. Market segmentation will develop in depth, from product categories, product grades, product functions and other aspects. At the same time, he said that the “labor force” issue will become one of the main factors plaguing the development of China’s garment industry. In 2008, factors such as the financial crisis and changes in local policy guidance led to the closure of some Chinese garment companies, but the “labor shortage” has not been fundamentally improved. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places are still worried about the increasing shortage of “skilled workers”. At present, enterprises are faced with problems such as the “lack of employment” caused by the aging of skilled workers and the low professional quality of new workers.
He emphasized that we must be particularly vigilant against the rise of international trade protectionism. In 2009, the international economic development is expected to be relatively pessimistic. Countries in the United States and Europe have introduced economic protection policies targeting their own real industries, and trade protectionism has clearly risen. The current trade protection measures against China’s garment industry are mainly technical barriers. Through the continuous introduction of technical specifications, testing standards, product standards, etc. for imported products, the technology and quality requirements for imported products have been continuously improved, especially the quality requirements for imported products in higher technical fields such as rationalization indicators, safety indicators, and environmental protection indicators. Increase the number and strengthen inspection and testing of imported products. This greatly increases the difficulty of processing and manufacturing for Chinese export enterprises, significantly increases export manufacturing costs, and increases export risks. This forces Chinese companies to accelerate improvements in production and processing, and to focus on standards, quality, and efficiency.