Jointly Build The "Belt And Road" To Decorate This "Golden Road"

On the road to Keqiao City, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, trucks full of cloth flow continuously. The pieces of white cloth brought in were dyed with various colors when they were transported away. More than 70% of these "colors" that decorate people's good lives are shipped to countries jointly building the "Belt and Road".

The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing recently showed the world the vitality, cohesion and influence of the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past 10 years, the initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road" has profoundly changed Keqiao's textile industry. The beautiful and beautiful scenery woven by the "International Textile City" has become a vivid annotation of the fruitful achievements of jointly building the "Belt and Road".

On November 3, the 6th China Textile Industry "Belt and Road" Conference will be held in Keqiao. With the theme of "Weaving the shared new future of global textile cooperation", the conference summarized the successful experience of the textile industry in participating in the "Belt and Road" initiative for 10 years and explored new growth points of global textile industry cooperation.

  More orders have been placed in countries jointly building the "Belt and Road", and the menu for entertaining customers has changed

Six years ago, a Turkmen businessman entered Keqiao Textile City and entered the store of Zhejiang Buchuang Textile Group Co., Ltd. After that meeting, Qian Shuijiang, the general manager of Buchan Group, left for Turkmenistan for an investigation, and brought back the order "at least one container is delivered each time, and at most several hundred thousand meters of fabric is delivered each time".

Since then, Bucron Group has sent man-made cotton to this Central Asian country with more than 5 million people a year, with the maximum total length of more than 20 million meters, and the average per capita is 4 meters.

The artificial cotton produced by Buchuang Group is often used for women's household clothes, and is mainly sold to countries jointly building the "Belt and Road". "For example, in a large fabric wholesale market in Bangladesh, dozens of stores on the second floor once belonged to us..." Qian Shuijiang told reporters that thanks to the "Belt and Road" initiative, the export volume of Buchan Group has risen from the original 37 million dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars today, winning the Keqiao man-made cotton foreign trade sales champion for many consecutive years.

"Follow the earth, there will always be sunshine." Qian Shuijiang said, "Where there is consumer demand, there will be a market." He casually picked up a piece of fabric as an example, "This fabric is suitable for hot weather, but when the earth is rotating, there will always be a market. Further, can this fabric be used for winter clothes? This requires enterprises to develop their own markets."

He cautioned, "Don't underestimate the market of countries jointly building the 'Belt and Road'. The medium and high end products of Buchan Group account for about half of its exports."

Printing and dyeing is the upstream of textile and clothing industry. Li Chuanhai, president of Zhejiang Printing and Dyeing Industry Association and chairman of Shaoxing Haitong Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd., told reporters that the orders of printing and dyeing enterprises had increased this year compared with last year, among which South America, the Middle East, Africa and other regions jointly built the "Belt and Road" national orders.

Li Chuanhai concluded that over the past 10 years, Keqiao cloth merchants have embarked on a "global" Keqiao road by relying on the "four thousand spirit" of "going through thousands of hardships, speaking thousands of words, traveling thousands of mountains and rivers, and doing everything possible", in which the average annual growth rate of trade with countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" has remained above 15%.

As the largest textile fabric export enterprise in Keqiao District, Zhejiang Ventex International Trade Co., Ltd. has an annual export volume of about 300 million dollars, of which the market share of countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" has risen from 30% to 40% in the past to more than half now.

"In recent years, there have been more orders for co building the" Belt and Road "countries, and the menu for entertaining customers has changed." Fu Guangyi, chairman of Ventex, said vividly, "Hamburg and barbecue, which were originally favored by European and American customers, have been changed to Central Asian and African dishes."

According to the data of Keqiao District Bureau of Commerce, in the first three quarters, Keqiao's exports to countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" totaled 63.5 billion yuan, up 12.9% year on year, far higher than the national average.

"Now is the golden age for Keqiao and the countries jointly building the" Belt and Road "to conduct business exchanges and cooperation." Fu Guangyi judged.

  The "root block" of R&D and design is left behind, and the "vine" of textile printing and dyeing is stretched out

After visiting more than ten countries on the spot, Wei Changjun finally set up his factory in Ethiopia.

The 46 year old Jiangxi native is the general manager of Zhejiang Mina Textile Co., Ltd. He is not a big business among thousands of cloth merchants in Keqiao, but he is famous in Ethiopia in northeast Africa.

In 2011, Wei Changjun acquired a textile factory near Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with the money he earned from foreign trade; Three years later, he set up a printing and dyeing factory here; Recently, he also plans to build a clothing factory to build a textile printing and dyeing clothing industry chain. Since 2019, Mina Textile has paid a total of 200 million yuan in local taxes, and won the Ethiopian Tax Gold Award for consecutive years.

At present, Mina Textile's local printing and dyeing factory produces nearly 180000 meters of cloth every day, supplying Ethiopia and surrounding countries, as well as Turkey, Italy and other European markets.

More than ten years later, Wei Changjun is still optimistic about Ethiopia and believes that it will become "the textile and clothing center of Africa". As the second most populous country in Africa, the vast market and sufficient labor force, combined with relatively cheap electricity charges, have attracted many Chinese textile enterprises to come to layout.

Different from what many people think, what Mina Textile "moved" to Ethiopia is not the obsolete machinery in China, but the world-class new equipment. 14 million yuan will be invested in sewage treatment equipment alone, and 2500 tons of sewage will be treated per day according to European standards.

"The extension of the industrial chain to foreign countries is not to remove pollution." Wei Changjun stressed, "We look at the long term, and do not do short-term and smooth 'one hammer business'."

Mina Textile has laid out the textile, printing and dyeing in Ethiopia while leaving the R&D and design in Keqiao. It is like a sweet potato that sticks its roots into the ground and stretches its vines in all directions. This temporary and open development pattern is called "sweet potato economy".

Wei Changjun vividly compares that because the industrial supporting facilities are not perfect, Ethiopia's textile industry can only produce "rice" and "bread", while "roast duck" and "hairy crab" can only be developed and produced in Keqiao.

Mina Textile is not only looking for business opportunities along the "Belt and Road". In the past 10 years, a number of Keqiao textile printing and dyeing enterprises went to sea to write the story of "going through thousands of mountains and rivers to win back hundreds of billions of exports".

In 2017, Shaoxing Mulinseng Textile Trading Co., Ltd. established a printing and dyeing factory in Indonesia, and its gross profit has remained above 30% in recent years. Huang Yong, the general manager, revealed that more than 80% of the company's export orders came from countries jointly building the "Belt and Road", which contributed greatly to the sales growth of more than 15% for many consecutive years.

"In the future, we plan to invest and build factories in Turkey and Egypt," said Huang Yong.

"In recent years, many Keqiao colleagues have taken root in countries that jointly build the" Belt and Road ". I also sent my son to Egypt to investigate." Li Chuanhai said that countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road" have comparative advantages in terms of human costs, factory rent, industrial policies, and so on, although the supporting industries are not perfect, But "there are always more ways than difficulties, and" going out to fight "is engraved in the bones of Keqiao textile people".

   Do a good job in the "invisible" and "inaudible" market segments

In addition to going out and setting up factories, many Keqiao cloth merchants have also firmly established their foothold in the market segments of the "Belt and Road" countries.

Zhejiang Jingjun Textile Co., Ltd., relying on making patterns in "invisible places", was eventually "seen" by the market, and its products sold well to build a "Belt and Road" country.

"Invisible place" refers to lining. "Originally, there was only one kind of lining, one kind of design, and no one was willing to devote themselves to it." Shi Jianhai, who was less than 50 years old, recalled that a foreign businessman had ordered a batch of high-quality lining from him 20 years ago, and he was acutely aware that small lining might contain a large market.

Lining is the part closest to the body, which can keep warm, prevent penetration, and make clothes slippery and cool. High grade clothes have a high demand for lining.

Since then, Jingjun Textile has focused on the lining - changing the original single polyester into skin friendly rayon, cotton and other materials; According to different markets and seasons, various functional lining materials are introduced... From raw materials to designs, Jingjun Textile has made a name for "lining".

Since the "Belt and Road" initiative was put forward 10 years ago, Jingjun textile lining has accelerated to the sea, creating an export volume of 60 million yuan in the highest year. "Today, few people in the industry do not know what we have learned," Shi Jianhai said confidently.

In Keqiao Zhongfang Building, Yangshi Textile Co., Ltd., which specializes in functional outdoor elastic fabrics, has recently caused quite a stir in the industry by virtue of "silent fabrics", and has received a lot of orders from countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" market.

"During the use of silent fabrics, the friction sound is only one third of that of normal fabrics, which is equivalent to the breathing sound, and is suitable for hunting." Zhang Bin, director of research and development of Yang Shi textile products, recalled that several years ago, a customer proposed to walk on silent fabrics, but has not found them. From the raw materials at the front end to the printing and dyeing at the back end, Zhang Bin kept experimenting and finally gnawed the hard bone.

When Yangshi Textile was founded in 2006, there was no main product. In March of that year, a businessman who produced sportswear for foreign outdoor brands asked Yang Shi Textile to order a batch of fabrics, which gave Zhang Bin "inspiration": outdoor sports were springing up abroad, while domestic cloth merchants only provided hard shell fabrics, and few soft shell elastic fabrics. Zhang Bin, who recognized this business opportunity, decided to "not make outdoor elastic fabrics".

"Our advantage lies in the application of new materials, and Keqiao's complete textile industry chain enables us to find new materials in a shorter time," said Zhang Bin.

Up to now, Yangshi Textile has all kinds of outdoor elastic fabrics with different functions, such as waterproof, quick drying, breathable, moisture permeable, etc., which are used in five series of more than 300 products, such as skiing, quick drying and sunscreen, outdoor work clothes, soft shell charge, and fashion sports, dazzling people.

This year, the sales volume of Yangshi Textile is expected to reach 80 million yuan, about twice that of last year, and the growth is mainly from the markets of the "Belt and Road" countries in Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Next, Zhang Bin plans to set up branches in Southeast Asia or Central Asia.

In the past 10 years, the initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road" has unleashed unprecedented vitality and potential. A number of Keqiao cloth merchants seized the market opportunity of jointly building the "Belt and Road" country, and wrote the glory and dream of a piece of cloth. It is worth looking forward to how the "International Textile City" will continue to write a new legend in the next 10 years. (Reporter Zhang Dianbiao)

(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph)