Overview of Chinese Garment Industry

Since the reform and opening up over the past 30 years, the garment industry has achieved significant development in China, which now becomes the world's biggest country in apparel manufacturing and export. Among all industries in China, garment industry is among the earliest sectors to begin the marketization, with strongest international competitiveness, fastest growth and most attention.

The rapid and sustainable development of China's economy and the increasing consumption demand on apparel fuel the development of China's garment industry. Qualified labor power, the world's 30% raw materials, complete industry chain, favorable investment environment and continuous reform on related policies and facilities are the preconditions of the development of Chinese garment industry. Market-oriented reform has brought unprecedented vitality to Chinese garment industry and China has rapidly become the world's most dynamic apparel market, the most attractive investment market and factor market of talents and equipment. At the same time, China's garment industry speeds up the process of internationalization. A large amount of overseas investment absorbed by the capital diversification brings advanced technology, management, marketing and international management experience. The internationalization also expedites the upgrading of local Chinese clothing brands and development of modern corporate culture.

At present, China has more than 100,000 garment manufacturers, and 10 million people working in garment industry, among which more than 70% are skilled and technical workers. Overall competence is the cornerstone to strengthen the garment processing capacity. Decades of production and management experience, together with 30 years of continuous technological transformation and industrial upgrading, ensures China's garment processing capacity to be at the international forefront, which can process apparel products of various types, grades, fabrics and technologies.

The garment industry is one of the most prominent industries in clusterization among all sectors in China, with industrial clusters located in Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Sea region and southeast coastal areas. At present, there are over 50 garment clusters, which are characterized by product categories. The output of these industrial clusters amounts to more than 70% of the total garment production in China. The output of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Fujian, five provinces with strong apparel manufacturing power, reaches 80% of China's total apparel production. In recent years, provinces like Henan, Jiangxi and Hunan have also achieved rapid development in clothing industry. Through optimal allocation of resources, industry clusters can achieve a cost-saving and regional-scale effect and play a positive role in the overall development of the garment industry.

The strong competitive advantage also comes from the support of an integrated industry chain. The upstream firms offer sufficient production capacity of cotton, hemp, wool, silk and other fabrics as well as variety of accessories and auxiliaries, while the downstream companies provide adequate financial & logistics services and IT technology widely applied throughout the industry chain.

Presently, Chinese garment industry is undergoing a new wave of industrial upgrading, which is expected to improve the international competitiveness by optimized allocation of resources. Through advocating new industrialized strategy and brand development strategy in the core principle of "Quality, Innovation, Fast Response and Social Responsibility", the industry is committed to cultivating original garment brands of strong international competitiveness, focusing on the industry enhancement by brand promotion, and creating multinational corporations. Innovation is considered as the soul of the industry and the whole industry is now adopting the idea of innovation to improve the original creativity and gain re-creative ability. The industry expects to have a positive change in growth mode and a successful industrial upgrading by speeding up scientific and technological progress and adjusting the industrial structure and product portfolio.

As an open field, the garment industry is among China's earliest and most successful sectors to introduce foreign investment. Currently, the quantity of foreign-funded enterprises, the output and the export volume of these companies cover over 1/3 of the whole industry respectively. In the process of international economic integration, bilateral and multilateral international cooperation and win-win strategy have become the mainstream of the garment industry. With good process capability and advanced original creation ability, Chinese garment industry is actively seeking extensive and deep international cooperation and looking for common development with the global garment industry.