Industrial Cluster: The Development Of Xinjiang Cotton And Textile And Clothing Industries Is Mutual Traction

As a typical industry with strong ability to absorb employment among the "eight major industrial clusters", the development of Xinjiang's cotton and textile and clothing industrial clusters is stepping onto a new stage and starting a new journey driven by multiple favorable conditions such as the construction of the pilot free trade zone, opening to the west, and counterpart assistance to Xinjiang.

By the end of October, there were 3725 textile and clothing enterprises in Xinjiang.

The rapid development of Xinjiang's textile and clothing industry is inseparable from Xinjiang's unique advantages in raw materials. "As an important major cotton producing area in China, in recent years, Xinjiang's cotton production layout has been continuously optimized, and cotton quality has steadily increased," said Liang Yong, Deputy Secretary General of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

This year, the cotton planting area in Xinjiang is 35.6085 million mu. The cotton planting area of 25 major cotton planting counties (cities) accounts for 90% of the whole Xinjiang. The cotton planting regiments of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have been reduced from 103 to 78, and cotton production is further concentrated in advantageous cotton regions.

"The cotton planting area in Xinjiang will be stabilized at about 35 million mu," Liang Yong said.

Although the cotton planting area in Xinjiang has been reduced, the cotton yield has remained stable and the quality has continued to rise. In 2022, many indicators of cotton in Xinjiang can be compared with the world recognized American cotton and Australian cotton. It can be said that Xinjiang Cotton Comprehensive Quality Department is at the best level since the target price reform, and the cotton quality ranks among the top in the world.

In terms of raw material supply, Xinjiang's pure cotton yarn output has accounted for 1/3 of the country's total, and polyester fiber manufacturing has also achieved a historic breakthrough. The 300000 ton polyester chemical fiber project in Aral City of the First Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps was completed and put into operation, realizing the breakthrough of zero polyester fiber manufacturing in Xinjiang; The 250000 ton polyester staple fiber project of Zhongtai will also be put into production at the end of this year.

"This marks that Xinjiang textile raw materials have achieved the tripartite confrontation of cotton, viscose fiber and polyester fiber, laying the foundation for the coupling development of Xinjiang cotton and oil resources, and creating conditions for Xinjiang to accelerate the construction of textile and clothing industry cluster highlands and export processing bases." Liang Yong said.

High quality raw materials attracted the rapid growth of fixed asset investment in the textile and clothing industry. According to the data, from 2014 to 2022, the fixed asset investment in Xinjiang's textile and clothing industry totaled 285.9 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 20% year on year, ranking first in the growth rate of fixed asset investment in all major industries in Xinjiang.

"While the number of enterprises and fixed asset investment are growing, the cotton textile industry chain is accelerating its extension," Liang Yong said. In 2022, Xinjiang's yarn, cloth and clothing production capacity will be 5.11 times, 13 times and 4.66 times higher than that in 2014, respectively, and the chemical fiber will increase by 50.8% compared with that in 2014.

In the first nine months of this year, Xinjiang's yarn output was 1.726 million tons, up 14.8% year on year, its cloth output was 926 million meters, up 41.2% year on year, and its chemical fiber output was 619000 tons, up 18.8% year on year.

In general, in 2022, the output value of the whole industrial chain of cotton, textiles and clothing in Xinjiang will exceed 200 billion yuan, and the local conversion rate of cotton will be 33%. It is estimated that more than 2.2 million spindles will be added in 2023, and more than 20000 looms will be added.

In recent years, Xinjiang has introduced many preferential policies, which almost cover all links of the cotton and textile and clothing industry chain. In addition to freight subsidies, preferential electricity prices and one-time new employment, pre job training and talent introduction, technology upgrading subsidies, etc., play an important role in helping the industry chain to attract investment.

Since this year, the autonomous region has issued a series of policies related to cotton industry:

——Publish the Implementation Plan of 2023-2025 Cotton Target Price Policy, and timely cash the 2022 cotton target price subsidy.

——We printed and distributed the 2023 Implementation Plan of the Target Price Subsidy and Quality linked Policy for Cotton in the Autonomous Region, and improved the quality subsidy policy.

——The Pilot Implementation Plan for Military and Local Cotton Market Integration in 2023 was issued to accelerate the establishment of unified cotton market rules throughout the region, break the division of military and local cotton markets, and promote the smooth flow of cotton resources in a larger range.

——The Pilot Plan for Cotton Income Insurance was formulated to provide cotton farmers with a new market-based income insurance mechanism with stable basic income.

——We launched the policy of extending the chain, supplementing the chain and strengthening the chain, increased the freight subsidy for the export of clothing and other end products, and granted fixed asset investment loans to enterprises to expand production scale. From 2023, the freight subsidy for clothing, home textile, knitting, industrial textiles and other end products will increase from 4% of the original product sales to 6%.

At the same time, Xinjiang is further improving the public service system of cotton textile industry. The Xinjiang Textile and Clothing Industry Development Plan (2018-2023) issued in 2018 established the layout of "three cities, seven parks and one center", of which "one center" is the Urumqi International Textile and Clothing Trade Center, which is positioned to build a textile and clothing research and development center, design center, exhibition and sales center and trade settlement center in the central and western regions of the country.

"Urumqi International Textile and Clothing Center is an important starting point to realize the layout of Xinjiang's textile and clothing industry and build Xinjiang's cotton and textile and clothing industry cluster, and is a key link in the layout of the autonomous region's textile and clothing industry." Liu Maolin, director of Urumqi International Textile and Clothing Center Investment and Development Co., Ltd., introduced that 13 industrial projects of the center, the park service center The R&D and design center has been put into use; Sandship Outlets, Tongchuang Trade Port, hotels, intelligent storage and other projects will be opened and operated in 2024; Industrial cultivation base, Lianggang Industrial Park and other projects are expected to be completed in 2025.

Urumqi International Textile and Garment Center is located in the center of the economic development functional block of Urumqi area of China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, with the regional advantages of facing the international airport area in the north, facing the China Europe Train Assembly Center in the south, the Western Union Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and connecting the high-speed railway area in the east.

Planting Chinese parasol trees attracted the phoenix. "We will provide nanny like landing services for enterprises, assist in the declaration of free trade pilot zone policies, and provide services such as smart parking, smart office space, cross-border trade, hotel accommodation and logistics," Liu Maolin said.

After visiting Urumqi International Textile and Clothing Center, Yang Xiong, chairman of Hubei Yinfeng Industrial Group Co., Ltd., said, "After 20 years of development in Xinjiang, Xinjiang has been engaged in cotton planting, purchasing, processing and trade. Xinjiang has many advantages, such as low labor costs, low electricity prices, high subsidies, and proximity to the Central Asian and European markets. We are full of confidence in Xinjiang's development."

Now Urumqi International Textile and Clothing Center has the Xinjiang headquarters of the National Cotton Trading Market Group settled in; Operating e-commerce live broadcast base and supply chain selection center, the cumulative number of transaction orders is 600000, and the transaction volume is 25 million yuan; Jointly set up the "Xinhui Industrial Coordination Center" with Wuxi Huishan Economic Development Zone to promote the coordinated development of industries in the central and western regions. Urumqi International Textile and Garment Center Investment and Development Co., Ltd. has carried out block transactions around cotton textile transactions, with a total transaction volume of 4.4 billion yuan, and its business has expanded to North China, East China and South China.

While making achievements in development, Xinjiang's textile and garment industry still faces some shortcomings. For example, the variety and structure of Xinjiang cotton textile products need to be optimized; The downstream clothing, knitting, home textile and other end industries have made slow progress, with small scale and low local deep processing rate; Low operating rate of printing and dyeing industry; The fluctuation of cotton transaction price has a great impact on the cost.

In response to these problems, Liang Yong said that Xinjiang has defined the goal for the development of the textile and clothing industry in the next stage: by 2028, the output value of the whole cotton and textile and clothing industry chain in Xinjiang will exceed 300 billion yuan, the local conversion rate of cotton will be 45%, the cloth output will be 2 billion meters, and the clothing and clothing output will be 800 million pieces (sets).

"Ten key tasks will be determined around this goal," Liang Yong said. The ten key tasks are to build a high-quality cotton base, promote chain extension and supplement, build industrial clusters, expand domestic and international markets, strengthen technology empowerment, cultivate brands, train high-quality industrial workers, promote clean and safe production, build a public service system and expand publicity.

Promoting chain extension and supplement is to enhance the competitiveness of equipment technology, promote the integrated development of cotton industry and petrochemical industry, develop printing and dyeing with high standards, and increase support for clothing and other end industries. "Xinjiang's cotton textile products are mainly pure cotton yarn, pure viscose yarn and cotton/viscose blended yarn, lacking the blended yarn of cotton, polyester fiber and other differentiated fiber materials dominated by the domestic market. In response to this problem, we support domestic chemical fiber leading enterprises to build an integrated base of the whole chemical fiber textile industry chain based on Xinjiang's petrochemical resources, and develop more cotton, polyester, viscose and other blended products." Liang Yong said.

Enterprise is the foundation of industry. "In the future, it is still an important task for the development of the textile and clothing industry to introduce excellent enterprises and accelerate the construction of industrial clusters." Liang Yong said that Xinjiang will focus on the southern Xinjiang region and take the construction of the Aksu Alar National High tech Industrial Development Zone as an opportunity to actively undertake the group, chain and cluster transfer of the textile and clothing industry in the central and eastern regions.

"The market is the traction of industrial development, which will give full play to Xinjiang's location and transportation advantages near the Central Asian and European markets to help enterprises expand the market." Liang Yong said. Specifically, it is to promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade in the cotton textile industry, hold a series of Xinjiang cotton promotion activities, and help enterprises to vigorously expand the international market through exhibitions such as Canton Fair and Import Expo and multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as RCEP.

The public service system is the catalyst for industrial development. At present, Xinjiang is accelerating the construction of a national cotton and cotton yarn trading center and an Urumqi international textile and clothing center, encouraging domestic industry institutions, large enterprises and other investment entities to participate in the construction of public service institutions and platforms such as technology research and development, inspection and testing, design consulting, education and training, and spot and futures trading.

In Xinjiang, the development of textile and clothing industry has far-reaching significance.

Ten years ago, after in-depth research and comprehensive consideration of Xinjiang's social, economic and regional conditions, the country made a major decision to develop Xinjiang's textile and clothing industry and promote employment based on Xinjiang's cotton resource advantages. The development of textile and clothing, an industry with strong employment absorption capacity, can increase the income of Xinjiang's people of all ethnic groups in the process of industrialization, promote human modernization, and promote the long-term stability of Xinjiang.

Over the past decade, with the support of national policies, Xinjiang has grown into a new gathering place of China's textile industry, and the cotton, textile and clothing industries have flourished.

From the perspective of economics, no matter the advantages of raw materials, intermediate production links, or market development, the development of cotton and textile and garment industries in Xinjiang is in line with economic laws, which is conducive to reducing the production costs of cotton textile enterprises and improving market competitiveness. Therefore, it is an inevitable choice for Xinjiang to make the cotton, textile and clothing industries bigger and stronger.

The starting point is a piece of cotton, and the extension is an industrial chain. The planting area is stable at about 35 million mu, the total number of enterprises is nearly 4000, and the output value of the whole industrial chain is more than 200 billion yuan... Xinjiang's cotton, textile and clothing industry has been expanded, and the next goal is to become stronger. It is necessary to focus on the complete industrial chain from cotton production, processing and trading to textile, printing and dyeing, and clothing, continue to extend the chain to strengthen the chain, and open up the integrated development link of "refining, chemical and textile", forming an industrial closed-loop from one cotton to one garment. We should adhere to the requirements of high-quality development, pay attention to the empowerment of science and technology, vigorously promote the mechanization of cotton production links and the intelligent transformation of textile links, and improve production efficiency; We should also pay attention to environmental protection requirements. When developing printing and dyeing industries, we should put the protection of ecological environment in an important position and take the road of green development. At the same time, we should make good use of both domestic and foreign markets, give full play to the hub of China Europe regular trains and the transportation advantages of "five ports connecting eight countries, one road connecting Europe and Asia", and develop export-oriented textile and clothing industry.

The development and growth of Xinjiang's cotton, textile and garment industries are the result of social progress, driven by economic laws, and expected by the people. With the efforts of all parties, this industry will continue to be strong and become an indispensable pole in the world textile and clothing industry.