Chinese textile and apparel enterprises’ low-cost expansion through the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative

Sluggish global trade growth, declining demand in overseas market and continuous rising of domestic labor costs are just a few of the numerous difficulties and challenges Chinese textile and apparel enterprises are currently facing. To be able to grow in such an adverse environment, some Chinese enterprises have either shifted their production facilities to inland regions where labor cost is lower, or have chosen to expand overseas to cut domestic labor costs.

The “One Belt, One Road” Initiative (the Initiative) has presented tremendous opportunities to Chinese textile and apparel enterprises to fully utilize already available resources in the countries along the route of the Initiative, including growing cotton in Africa, setting up production base in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and establishing logistics network overseas.

 

Just as Liu Yaozhong, Deputy Director of Trade Promotion Department of the Textile Industry Sub-council under China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, put it, the Initiative would enable Chinese textile and apparel enterprises to expand overseas at a lower cost, help mitigate the political risks such enterprises face when “going global”, as well as boost trade with countries along the route of the Initiative.