On February 18, the 19th Annual Meeting of the China Textile Roundtable was held in Beijing.

On February 18, the 19th Annual Meeting of the China Textile Roundtable was held in Beijing. Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Building a Powerful Domestic Demand Power System for the Modernized Textile Industry System". The full text is now published for readers.

Building a Powerful Domestic Demand Power System for the Modernized Textile Industry System

Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council

February 18, 2025, Beijing

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the cultivation of a complete domestic demand system, form an effective investment endogenous growth mechanism, and improve the long-term mechanism for expanding consumption. The Central Economic Work Conference regards the multi-faceted expansion of domestic demand as the primary task of economic work in 2025. As an important pillar industry and livelihood industry, meeting the domestic demand market, consolidating the development foundation, activating market momentum, and driving transformation and upgrading are the main tasks of high-quality development of the textile industry, and are also an important driving force for building a modernized textile industry system. Take this opportunity to exchange some ideas with you on industrial development.

1. Progress in stability, new achievements in high-quality development of the textile industry

2024 is the year of reform and new quality. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee opened the era of further deepening reform in an all-round way. The textile industry follows the path and keeps pace with the times. Faced with a complex external environment, the industry insists on seeking progress in stability, expanding domestic demand, optimizing structure, boosting confidence, and preventing risks, actively giving play to the effectiveness of the country's series of stock and incremental policies, and the development expectations continue to improve, and positive factors continue to accumulate.

According to the survey and calculation of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, the comprehensive prosperity index of the industry in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 59.5%, which was above the prosperity line for the eighth consecutive quarter. The production situation of the industry remained stable, and the capacity utilization rates of the textile industry and the chemical fiber industry were 78.5% and 85.4% respectively, both higher than the national level in the same period. In 2024, the industrial added value of textile enterprises above designated size nationwide increased by 4.4% year-on-year, an increase of 5.6 percentage points over the previous year; operating income increased by 4% year-on-year, an increase of 4.8 percentage points over the previous year; total profit increased by 7.5% year-on-year, an increase of 0.3 percentage points over the previous year. my country's per capita clothing consumption expenditure increased by 2.8% year-on-year; the total retail sales of clothing, shoes and hats, and needle textiles above the limit reached 1.47 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.3% year-on-year; online clothing retail sales increased by 1.5% year-on-year. In 2024, my country's total exports of textiles and clothing will be US$301.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%. Among them, the export value of textiles is US$141.96 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%; the export value of clothing is US$159.14 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.3%. The industry actively implements the policy requirements of large-scale equipment renewal. In 2024, the fixed asset investment completion amount of the textile industry, clothing industry and chemical fiber industry (excluding farmers) will increase by 15.6%, 18% and 4.7% year-on-year respectively, and the growth rate will be 16, 20.2 and 14.5 percentage points faster than the previous year.

The construction of a modern textile industry system has taken solid steps. The scale advantages and system advantages of the industry are constantly strengthened. China's total fiber processing volume has stabilized at more than 60 million tons, accounting for more than 50% of the world's total fiber processing volume. From 2020 to 2024, the total export volume of textiles and clothing has remained above US$300 billion for five consecutive years. China's annual clothing output exceeds 70 billion pieces, which can provide about 8.75 pieces of clothing for each person in the world. In 2024, a total of 5 textile-related enterprises will be among the Fortune Global 500, 14 will be on the Fortune China 500, and 35 will be among the top 500 private enterprises in China. Specialized, refined and innovative enterprises continue to emerge and flourish. Focusing on the new productivity of science and technology, fashion, and green development, the textile industry has achieved value extension and reconstruction in intensive development and integrated innovation.

Innovation leads, and the industry is more high-end. New technologies, new materials, and new products continue to emerge, forming a strong support for strategic industries and future industries. The self-sufficiency rate of high-performance fibers, high-end equipment, and high-end industrial textiles continues to increase. Synthetic fiber monomer raw materials, green dyes, auxiliaries, oils, etc. have achieved independent technological breakthroughs and import substitution on a large scale.

Digital integration makes the industry smarter. From industrial Internet to flexible supply chain, from intelligent manufacturing to smart marketing, the digital economy promotes process reengineering and expands demand scenarios. Artificial intelligence is reconstructing the industrial architecture and underlying foundation, and "AI+science" and "AI+design" have become new innovation paradigms.

Cultural empowerment makes the industry more confident. The national trend is booming, and the national style is flourishing. Focusing on masters, big names, and major events, world-class brands, and designer brands are growing rapidly. Subdivided categories are accelerating fission. Lifestyle brands in scene refinement, Chinese aesthetic brands in feature focus, and hard-core functional brands in technology empowerment are rising.

Low-carbon transformation, the industry is more responsible. With the direction of intensification, reduction, low carbonization, recycling and cleanness, the whole industry chain is accelerating the green transformation. Green manufacturing, liquid dyeing, non-aqueous dyeing and other technologies are developing. Zero-carbon products and negative carbon fiber are successfully born. Social responsibility and ESG management tools and innovative practices continue to improve.

Global development, the industry is more open. From products to brands, from production capacity to supply chain, from enterprises to clusters, the textile industry has entered a "new era of navigation". Integrating into the construction of the "Belt and Road", a more diversified and balanced textile trade pattern has been formed. A group of high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises have become the core suppliers of the global supply chain.

From the ecological transition from "big and complete" to "strong and tough", from the kinetic energy conversion from "factor-driven" to "innovation-driven", from the mode upgrade of "passive adaptation" to "active shaping", the industry has entered the stage of high-quality development and is in a critical period of transition. The situation is encouraging, but there is still pressure. The adverse effects of the current changes in the external environment have deepened, domestic demand is insufficient, some enterprises are in production and operation difficulties, and there are many risks and hidden dangers. Coordinating the current and long-term, and expanding domestic demand in multiple directions, is a major judgment made by the Party Central Committee with a profound insight into the general trend of development, which points out the direction and path for the industry to cope with realistic challenges, open up the development situation.

II. Expanding domestic demand is the core driving force and strategic support for building a modern textile industry system

Expanding domestic demand is not a "stopgap measure", but a long-term strategy and strategic move. From a global perspective, the internal circulation is the general feature of the economy of major countries, and the shift from promoting the internal to promoting the external is a common experience of the rise of major countries. Based on the domestic demand system, building a modern industrial system with integrity, advancement and security is a strategic measure to cope with the complex changes in the international environment, an inherent requirement to give full play to the advantages of my country's super-large-scale economy, and a natural choice to adapt to the changes in the country's development stage.