Gather all wisdom and accumulate all forces to seek for a win-win pattern

On September 20th， “2018 The First World Textile Merchandising Conference” （hereinafter abbreviated as the Conference） was opened in an international textile city — Keqiao District， Shaoxing City， Zhejiang Province.

Themed by “Win-win Cooperation · Responsible Development”， the Conference adhered to principles of co-consulting， co-construction and sharing， paid attention to “openness， science & technology， fashion and greenness”， gathered global industrial forces with an “open， pragmatic and high-end” international textile event， gathered all wisdom， and accumulated all forces to seek for a win-win pattern and took active actions to jointly tackle all problems for the sake of practically promoting highquality development of the world textile economy. With opening ceremony， keynote speeches， theme forum and related activity ceremonies being main contents， the conference discussed about collaborative development of the world textile industry and transformation and upgrading of China textile industry from a global and forward-looking perspective under the Belt and Road Initiative， and expected the future development trend of textile technology and dynamic pattern of the global fashion industry.

Gu Xiulian， Vice Chairman of the 10th Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress， Chairman of International Textile Manufactures Federation （ITMF） （2016 - 2018） and Chairman of African Cotton and Textile Industry Federation （ACTIF） — Jaswinder Bedi， President of CNTAC and Vice Chairman of ITMF— Sun Ruizhe， Chairman and Secretary of the Communist Party of China General Chamber of Commerce（CGCC） — Jiang Ming， etc. attended the conference.

In addition， over one thousand and one hundred people attended the conference， including leaders of related departments in Shaoxing， Zhejiang Province， Keqiao District committee and district government leaders， main principals of towns （streets and development zones） and relevant departments as well as domestic and foreign textile industry associations， research institutes， design schools， famous enterprises， e-commerce platforms， and representatives and enterprise representatives from domestic and foreign media， etc.

Share the opportunity， co-welcome the challenge and co-create prosperity

Gu Xiulian delivered a speech， expressing that the global governance concept “co-consulting， coconstruction and sharing” proposed by President Xi Jinping condensed new international consensus， injected new power and energy to construct a destiny community of human beings and promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road construction and also provided new principles and ideas to tackle world development difficulties. She also pointed out that in the new era when Chinas economy turned to highquality development， China textile industry was willing to join hands with colleagues within the industry from different countries to promote open， win-win and fair development， development of technology-led collaborative innovation， all-inclusive development of mutual reference of civilizations and green， ecological， high-quality and sustainable development based on principles “co-consulting， co-construction and sharing” with the Belt and Road being a practical platform. We would like to exert positive and constructive effects to construct a new-type destiny community of the world textile industry.

“China is the one and only country which has started investing the textile industry with an attempt made to realize its modernized development， so future potential and development space are enormous. Other countries have also started paying attention to opportunities in the textile field.” ， pointed out by Jaswinder Bedi on the conference. He expressed that Chinas market demand had been continuously growing in the past decade， per capita demand was 15 kg and it would reach 25 kg in the future. In the future 7 years up to 2020， China would become the largest retail market of Europe and America. He predicted that up to 2025， total market share in China and India would occupy over 700 billion USD， exceeding the total demand 725 billion USD in Europe and America for the first time. He also pointed out that under the trade system of WTO， WTO and the globe might establish a new trade system under the threat of protectionism. Only win-win cooperative partnership mechanism could make progress and achieve success on the multilateral trade platform.

High attention was paid by Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to this Textile Merchandising Conference. As the toastmaster of the opening ceremony， secretary of the CPC Keqiao District Committee， Shaoxing — Shen Zhijiang read out written instructions given by secretary Ma Weiguang of the CPC Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee. He pointed out that Keqiao District could grasp the opportunity of the First World Textile Merchandising Conference to create and design“dream incubator” and intelligent “cloud factory” using modern technologies. In this way we could accelerate transformation and upgrading of the textile industry into fashion creative design and brand marketing， boost“market progress” of China Textile City， act as “bellwether” of development of the textile industry and energetically forge a “city of world fashion textiles”.

Deputy Secretary of the CPC Shaoxing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Shaoxing Municipality — Sheng Yuechun delivered a speech at the conference. He introduced that nearly 1/4 of global textiles closed deals in Keqiao · China Textile City every year， and annual transaction volumes of Textile City Market cluster and “online textile city” already exceeded 160 billion RMB and 30 billion RMB respectively. Shaoxing is now aiming at the “green， high-end and world leading” goal and is dedicated to continuously extending the industry chain， complementing the innovation chain and improving the value chain by implanting elements like industrial internet， intelligent equipment， modern technology， cultural creativity and brand marketing.

Shen Zhijiang introduced economic development conditions in Shaoxing on the conference. “The world textile industry relies on China and China textile industry lies in Shaoxing”， said by him. Keqiao， Shaoxing is the “bridgehead” integrating Hangzhou， connecting Shanghai and linking Ningbo in the new era， a top 13 national strong region， and its per capita GDP takes the first place among 89 counties and municipalities in Zhejiang Province. In the meantime， Keqiao is also an important place gathering global textile industries.

Explore into the win-win cooperation path for the world textile industry

On the conference， Sun Ruizhe gave a keynote speech over the theme Win-win Cooperation Path of the World Textile Industry under the New Global Situation. He pointed out that China textile industry was the hardcore force of the world textile industry and important pillar industry and peoples livelihood industry in China. It had obtained astonishing achievements over the 40 years since the reform and opening up. The world textile industry is now experiencing a profound global market reform and globalization in the network， reformation， balance， flow and responsibility. The transformation of China textile industry under the new situation takes “intelligent， service-oriented and green” as important development directions in the aspect of manufacturing upgrading； online and offline channels bring out the best in each other in the upgrading process with more diversified forms； it centers on consumers when experiencing the upgrading process to capture and satisfy consumer needs； it attempts to create a professional and international industrial clus-ter in main body upgrading； it collaborates domestic and foreign resources in the aspect of cooperation upgrading to continuously strengthen international coordination. Complete industrial supporting system， enormous market space and open development pattern have brought opportunities to the industrial development.

He also pointed out that the textile industry under the new situation should exploit the win-win cooperation path from four aspects： open development， scientific and technological innovation， green development and fashion development； deepen the cooperation， enhance the interlinkage and create windows； deeply fuse into the global innovation system and effectively utilize global technological innovation resources to promote industrial innovation at a higher level； promote multi-dimensional responsible co-governance of the industry with positive attitudes and practical actions； boost deep integration between textile technology and cultural creativity， between product development and information technology and between local culture and world trend.

Discussion about the future of textile technology and global industrial collaboration

World multi-polarization， economic globalization， society information， cultural diversification， global governance system and international order reform， new and old economic energy transformation， new industrial technologies， new patterns and new interfaces are emerging continuously. Faced with a new future with frequent challenges， world economic growth needs new power and its development needs universal and balanced benefits.

Dr. Christian Schindler， General Secretary of ITMF， interpreted development tendency of world textile economy under the theme Global Textile（Machinery） Market Situation. As he talked， garment export grew very rapidly in the past years and this was the product brought by further openness of the global textile industry. The textile industry had been influenced by the quota system before the 1995 conference in Uruguay. Until 2004 when the quota system came to an end， opportunities were brought to many countries， among which China was one. He also pointed out that online retail was rapidly developing in the globe especially in China. China might be the country which was the most developed in that aspect. Technologies developed in China from computer side and mobile side were both first-class ones， and many countries learned from China， seeing how e-commerce in China developed.

In the speech of Progress and Development of World Textile Science and Technology， academician Yu Jianyong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering summarized main development features of textile science and technology and expounded numerous breakthroughs achieved by innovation of textile science and technology from three aspects： green development， intelligent development and pluralistic development. He expressed that the contemporary era was an era featuring interaction between technological revolution and industrial reform during which hightech development was in the ascendant， and the formed leading-edge technology and disruptive technological innovation were shaping the global economic pattern. Under this background， a significant driving force of textile technology derives from the multi-dimensional development space formed by fusion of scientific and technological revolution within a global scope， high and new technology clusters and textile technology.

In the speech themed by Path Selection and Strategic Thinking upon Transformation of traditional Industry， Zhang Jie， Chairman of China Hi-tech Group Corporation， mentioned that competitive advantages of China textile industry were very obvious through the development in the past years， especially in the field of fiber or raw materials of the textile industry. The most complete industry chain in the world was formed together with the highest processing support level and numerous developed industrial clusters. Its necessary to further improve self-adjusting ability of coping with market risks towards the directions of textile development tendency and technological progress so as to provide a solid guarantee for keeping steady development pace of the industry.

When sharing ideas over Going Green and Environmental Protection & Product Innovation， Chairman and Executive Director Ma Jianrong of the board of directors of Shenzhou International Group Holdings Limited said that fabric industry and apparel industry were the hotspots for investment. Sewage and wastes in the textile industry constituted the pain of the whole textile industry. “Clean water and green mountain are golden and silver mountains” mentioned by President Xi Jinping is rightly the problem needing urgent solutions from enterprises. The gov-ernment should be more determined and especially textile enterprises should have a higher degree of cognition. He also introduced that Shenzhou International Group attached importance to innovation and emission control， reinforced environmental protection and carried out clean production through the intensive international layout， took a series of energysaving and cost-reducing measures and recruited famous environmental protection experts as chief scientists. “Our contribution to taxation was 10.5 billion RMB in the last year”， said Ma Jianrong.

“Digitization and interlinkage of each factory， each machine， each technical component and even each material running through the production process is expected to help the industrial manufacturing to realize the next paradigm transition”， said General Manager Mark Jarvis of World Textile Information Net （WTiN） in his speech titled Digital Transformation of the Value Chain of Textile and Apparel Industry. He deemed that with emergence of more innovative materials and intelligent textile， its predicted that 10% of the world population would be connected through garments in 2025， which would bring a series of opportunities and catalyze new economic patterns.

Establish a more open and flexible development pattern

On the conference， 12 global representatives from China， Egypt， Indonesia， Malaysia， France， Turkey， Vietnam， Cambodia and Laos， etc. within the textile industry attended the “World Textile Merchandising Conference Council” foundation ceremony. “World Textile Merchandising Conference Council” is a cooperative organization jointly sponsored and founded by relevant institutes in the global textile and apparel industry and based on World Textile Merchandising Conference. Adhering to “co-consulting， co-construction and sharing” principles， it aims at establishing a world textile communication platform under the response to the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China so as to promote international cooperation of textile industries， realize upstream and downstream win-win cooperation of the global textile industry chain and propel the global textile industry to realize healthy and sustainable development.

On the “Permanent Venue of WTMC-Keqiao， Shaoxing， China”awarding ceremony， Jaswinder Bedi came on the stage and awarded， and Deputy Secretary of Keqiao District Committee and Keqiao District mayor in Shaoxing — Zhao Rulang accepted the awarding as a representative of Keqiao District. Permanently taking root in Keqiao， World Textile Merchandising Conference will enormously advance a powerful country construction pace of Chinese textile industry， further expand and deepen modeling effect of Keqiao-represented Chinese mercer clusters within the global scope， and gather global wisdom to step on a win-win cooperation path with bright characteristics towards the same direction with the same mission.

On the conference， Keqiao District Peoples Government released“Silk Road in Keqiao， Connect Whole World Together” action plan. Leaders and representatives in countries and regions like China， Italy， Thailand， Ukraine， Uzbekistan， South Korea and France as well as governmental representatives participated in “Silk Road in Keqiao， Connect Whole World Together” launching ceremony. According to the information， the main paths of this plan are： “westward”： mainly face European and American high-end markets， strive to establish “Shaoxing Keqiao Pavilion” in international fashion centers like New York， Milan and Paris and global well-known fabric exhibitions and recommend high-quality superior fabrics of Keqiao to global renown purchasers， brands and fashion design institutes； “eastward”： mainly face countries along the Belt and Road， independently hold overseas fabric exhibitions of China Textile City， accurate matchmaking symposiums and set up textile fabrics exhibition centers so that Keqiao China Textile City can become an important platform for the Belt and Road construction； “inward”： with “textile exposition”， Keqiao Fashion Week and so on being core carriers， carry out “monthly exhibition and everyday fashion” and make “China · Keqiao Textile Indicators” and“China · Keqiao Fashion Indicators” professional and sound so as to master right of speech in the market.