The opening cere,ony of the 2006 China (Shaoxing) International Textile Expo.	The China (Shaoxing) Textile Expo.

THE China Light and Textile City in thriving Shaoxing County in Jiangsu Province is a domestic and international center of textile trade. In 2006 its transaction volume hit RMB 50 billion, an 11 percent leap over the RMB 45 billion of 2005. This puts Shaoxing at the forefront of China’s currently burgeoning textile business.

Supportive Government

Upon China’s entering the WTO in 2001, the nation’s textile industry experienced a brief incandescence. Speculators jostled for a share of the huge profits to be made, heedless of warnings by experts, in and out of China, about the international trade conflicts that were bound to occur.

The Yangtze River Delta area soon became site of a dozen of textile markets, each with capital of RMB 10 billion or more, unconnected with the traditional textile manufacturing province of Shandong and and municipality of Tianjin. Over the period February 2004 to September 2005, 23 textile markets of magnitude were constructed around China -- roughly one each month. This imposed tremendous pressure on the 20-year-old Shaoxing Textile City.

Shaoxing, however, kept calm in the face of this competitive onslaught. “It’s easy to build a trade center but difficult to sustain it. Shaoxing’s outplays others through the buttress of the local textile industry,” says Sun Zhejun, deputy magistrate of the county. Shaoxing’s developed printing and dyeing industry has also lent wings to its textile and garment sectors; its advantageous location also offers easy access to other markets, both in China and internationally. The local government offers preferential policies to investors and merchants with offices in the Shaoxing Textile City. Its involvement in the trade center’s long-term planning, investment and management has substantially cut business costs, regulated market order and promoted construction.

The county government has also initiated a strategic plan to upgrade and expand the Shaoxing Textile City. The intention is to make the new zone innovative and complementary to the original. The upgraded trade center is expected to be an international trade hub of textile and China’s largest as regards size, range and service.

Scale Advantage, the Trump Card

Feng Jianrong, Shaoxing magistrate, is confident that the Textile City’s strong links with the textile industry give it an unassailable advantage over its rivals. It deals with more than 10,000 businesses, handles half of China’s acrylic fabrics, and is supplied by 40 percent of China’s textile manufacturers. These factors keep it on top of the textiles arena.

In upgrading the Textile City, Shaoxing has placed emphasis on scale advantage and individual features with sustainable development in mind. Renovations in the southern section will strengthen its conventional trade and service functions, while the northern section is the earmarked home of industrial textiles and textile machinery markets. The central part will concentrate on international trade conducted through modern modes of transaction, while the western part is to be upgraded into China’s leading textile raw material trade center.

Efforts will be made to beef up Shaoxing Textile City’s all-round business acumen. The government will formulate policies to step up macro planning and guidance and improve access to market resources. The Textile City will upgrade its storage and logistics, regulate market order, and keep running expenses at a rational level, thereby maintaining its competitiveness. Guild management is to be reformed and a market credit system installed. The ultimate aim is to build Shaoxing into a textile market of world-class facilities, functions and service.

The Shaoxing Textile City is promoting its own brand names with its eye on the global market. It is also inviting transnational companies and agencies to Shaoxing, and building the appropriate infrastructure. Its collaboration with international exhibition companies will lift the standard and reputation of the China Shaoxing International Textile Expo to world level. Intermediary services, such as credit guarantee, consultation, accounting, auditing and law, will also be available. Shaoxing is expected to become a center for textile sci-tech research and development and textile information as well as an international textile trade center.

This is an attainable target, taking into consideration the progress the city has undergone in recent years. Who knows what changes will occur in Shaoxing, once this ambition is, as it certainly will be, achieved.