China's textile and apparel industry deepens cooperation with RCEP countries

By：Belt and Road Portal Update：2022-11-26

Opportunities brought by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) further strengthens the broad prospects of cooperation between China's textile industry and RCEP member countries and regions, according to Sun Ruizhe, President of International Federation of Textile Manufactures (IFTM) and President of China National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC).

He said this at the 15th Global Textile and Apparel Supply Chain Conference opened in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Tuesday.

The conference witnessed a total of 26 major projects involving a total investment of 16.6 billion yuan settled in Guigang City, where the conference was held, and 15 enterprises signed to settle in China (Guigang) Textile and Clothing Fashion New Area, further providing a strong impetus for Guangxi's textile and apparel industry.

The textile industry is the pilot industry and key development area of RCEP regional cooperation, said Sun Ruizhe, adding that RCEP region not only breeds the world's major garment manufacturing hubs, but also boasts the important textile and garment consumer markets in the world.

It is noted that in 2021, China's textile and apparel exports to the RCEP member countries and regions amounted to 87.04 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for about 28 percent of China's textile exports to the world. Among them, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and Japan are major export destination markets of China's textile industry.

Guangxi now has 5 national textile and apparel industrial bases and more than 300 large-scale textile and garment production enterprises. It has become the most important garment production base in southwest China.