Steam rises in the workshop of Santai County Jialian (Jiaxi) printing and dyeing Company on March 22, which is busy producing a special waterproof and flame retardant fabric.

"In the past, we had only one textile company in the surrounding area. Now we have more than 50, and upstream and downstream enterprises gather in this park." Company deputy general manager Shi Minshan said.

A week ago on March 15, the 2023 National Textile and Garment Industrial Park work Conference was held in Santai County. At the meeting, the China National Textile Industry Council identified 32 industrial parks as "national textile and garment industrial parks pilot (demonstration)". There are more parks in central and western China, with 25 from Sichuan, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and Yunnan. Among them, there are three parks in Sichuan, namely Pengzhou Industrial Development Zone in Sichuan Province, Pingshan Economic Development Zone in Sichuan Province and Santai Industrial Park in Sichuan Province.

This is also consistent with the trend of textile shoes and clothing industry migrating from east to west in recent years. So how does Santai County grasp this opportunity and make textile industry bigger and better?

Enterprises jumped to 50+

Santai County textile footwear industry is developing rapidly

Santai County is a populous county, the industrial base is relatively weak. In 1993, the total output value of Santai County's textile shoes and clothing industry was only 35 million yuan. In 2022, the figure has reached 6.26 billion yuan, with more than 50 enterprises.

In 30 years, almost from scratch, Santai County textile footwear industry quickly became the local pillar industry, accounting for 74% of the total output value of the city's textile footwear industry.

The vehicles outside the conference with "Min" license plates and the representatives of entrepreneurs with local accents also show the diversification of the three textile shoes and clothing industry.

At the meeting, experts mentioned that the average salary of workers in some coastal textile industrial parks is more than 5,000 yuan, while in the western related parks it is about 4,700 yuan. The gap of hundreds of yuan leads many people to return home for employment. In combination with this trend, Santai County has embarked on the road of becoming a strong industrial county based on agricultural advantages and demographic dividend, among which the textile, footwear and clothing industry has developed most rapidly.

At the meeting on the same day, this point is also by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology consumer goods industry Department textile deputy director Longitudinal Ruilong recognized, he believes that there is a certain difference in the development of the east and west, which is an urgent problem to be solved, but also for the development of the textile industry to create strategic depth.

String dots into lines

The park has become the key bearer of industrial transfer

In terms of the current operation and management mode of industrial parks, most of the 32 industrial parks are government-invested parks, while a few are government-enterprise cooperation and enterprises' independent investment construction, which reflects that the construction of textile and garment industrial parks has strong government-led and regional guidance.

Taking Santai County as an example, in the process of building the professional park, Santai County has set up a special team for extending the chain and strengthening the chain and reinforcing the chain in the textile, footwear and apparel industry, focusing on the Yangtze River Delta, Fujian and other key areas around leading enterprises such as Jialian (Jiaxi), Hongxing Erke, Hanbinlin and Yile Textile, and building a number of workshops and parks suitable for the textile and apparel industry as the carrier.

"Santai County has formed a relatively complete industry chain of textile shoes and clothing, such as spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, clothing manufacturing, shoe manufacturing and home textiles." Three Tai Industrial Park Party Working Committee secretary Zhao Jintao said.

As the carrier of industrial development, the construction of the park is accelerating. On the one hand, its industrial chain is long, and the concentration of related supporting links is conducive to the overall development. At the same time, the textile shoes and clothing industry has a great demand for electricity and water, especially the printing and dyeing industry, which has a great pressure on environmental governance.

In 2022, the retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats and textiles by units above designated size reached 130.3 billion yuan, down 6.5 percent year on year. However, in the same period, the completed fixed asset investment of the textile industry, chemical fiber industry and clothing industry increased by 4.7 percent, 21.4 percent and 25.3 percent, respectively. According to experts at the meeting, the park has become the main carrier of investment.

Intelligent manufacturing

Textile shoes and clothing industry next tuyere?

Labor and other factors of production price advantage, will be an important reason for the transfer of labor intensive industries such as textile industry?

That day's meeting offered another answer: intelligence.

Hanbin Lin Shoes Co., LTD., located in Santai County, through the application of intelligent computer needle car, workers only need to "click to confirm", will be the customer requirements of various patterns accurately presented. The intelligent production line can produce 40,000 pairs of shoes per month by using the flexible visual guidance robot cold-sticking automatic forming line.

 Through continuous technological innovation, the annual output value of the company has exceeded 2.5 billion yuan from less than 40 million yuan at the beginning to 2022.

Sichuan Angina Sports Goods Co., Ltd. will invest 3 billion yuan in Santai County to build the province's first garment intelligent manufacturing digital industrial park. "Catch up with the development of modern information technology intelligent manufacturing, to further improve the quality and efficiency of industrial development. In the past, the textile industry was regarded as a traditional industry, but now it is defined as a dominant industry." "We have a large enough and growing domestic market to provide a great guarantee for the continued development of the textile industry and the development of industrial parks and enterprises," he said.