论文部分内容阅读
At the 109th Canton Fair, Mao Zhuren was surprised when his clothing range was met with such great interest from African visitors.
“They expressed keen interest in our brightcolored clothing,” said Mao, an exhibitor from Shanghai-based Flying Horse Import & Export Co.
Mao’s experience seems to gel with findings of official statistics from the organizing committee of Canton Fair, or China?Import and Export Fair, which suggest that there are increasing numbers of African businessman, especially in the clothing and textile sector, trading with China. At the 109th Canton Fair in 2011 the South African buyers increased by 21.4 percent. In terms of the clothing and textile sector, China exhibitors’ exports turnover to Africa at the Fair rose by $90 million, up 2.5 percent year on year.
Yao Qiao’e, a foreign trade manager of Quanzhou Caroline Garments Co. in southeast China’s coastal Fujian Province, was also upbeat.
“There is reason to become optimistic about our African market’s growth as African clients are easy to work with,” said Yao. “Most importantly, they recognize our brands.”
Africa, with its active economy and growth potential, is attracting the attention of Chinese textile enterprises in a big way. Meanwhile, its high-quality cotton, low labor costs, land resources and the priority policies and measures taken by African governments to support the textile industry is motivating more Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa.
Africa’s advantages
Soaring cotton prices in China, together with the rising costs and appreciation of the yuan, have put tremendous pressure on the textile and clothing industry, analysts said.
Meanwhile, Africa has substantially increased its cotton production. Cotton production in Mali, one of Africa’s major cotton producers, increased from 103,000 tons in 2010/11 to 171,000 tons in 2011/12. Francophone Africa’s production is expected to increase 25 percent to reach 619,000 tons in 2013, according to figures estimated by the International Cotton Advisory Committee.
The vast market and affluent resources in Africa make it a big target for the textile industry. Inaugurating “Origin Africa – Ethiopia 2012” textile expo, Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said the continent is attracting investments in the textile and clothing industry owing to availability of raw material and low labor costs.
Yao agreed, saying that her company saw great potential for textile and garment sector investment in Africa due to its low labor costs.
Chinese labor costs have soared in recent years despite a slowdown in the broader economy. Official data showed that in 2011, labor costs rose 10 to 30 percent at clothing manufacturers in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.
“Our products have entered the West African market, and we are planning to establish a factory there,” Yao added.
Zhejiang Province-based Yuemei Group provides a good example of Chinese enterprises developing the African market. The Yuemei Group, a textile manufacturing enterprise, owns clothing plants and sales offices in many African countries including Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon and Senegal. In Nigeria, Yuemei has built China’s first overseas textile industrial park designed to attract Chinese textile companies.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has a huge textile consumer market, but the textile manufacturing industry is a weak point in the economy, relying on imports for 80 percent of its textile products. In 2007, the company invested over $50 million to construct Yuemei Nigeria textile Industry Park, to facilitate more Chinese textile enterprises to do business abroad.
Yuemei has gradually created a complete production chain of spinning, weaving, embroidery, knitting, and garment making in the park, said its President Xu Zhiming.
Yuemei also boosts the local industrial development capability. During peak season, the company has outsourced to the local farmers, which allowed them to buy more than 4,000 weaving machines and to earn extra income of more than 40 million yuan ($6.3 million) annually.
Risks and opportunities
Recognizing the important economic role that the textile and apparel sector plays on the continent, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Botswana is developing an industrial development policy, attracting and encouraging foreign investment in Africa. For the industrial development policy, textile and apparel sector has been identified as one of the priority sectors by SACU member nations namely, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
Apart from SACU, African communities, including the Economic Community Of West African States, the Southern African Development Community, East African Community, not only enjoy collaborative business opportunities between community members, but can take advantage of the same. Exports and imports within member countries enjoy preferential tariff rates, which facilitate enterprises that develop in Africa. “As long as we enter one market [of community members], we will easily enter other markets,” said Yao.
Last December, China signed an agreement with four major African cotton-producing countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, to strengthen cooperation in cotton production.
Cooperation will include technology transfer, technical assistance in researches, provision of seeds, agricultural machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, funding of training projects, as well as exchanges of experience, in order to improve understandings of Chinese textile entrepreneurs toward Africa, and further encourage Chinese textile capital to Africa.
“In the longer term, we may relocate some of the textile and apparel industry into Africa,” said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming at the agreement signing ceremony, noting that there are already cases of such relocations.
Such cooperation will help boost cotton production in Africa. As Jas Bedi, Chairman of Kenya Association of Manufacturers and Africa Cotton and textile Industry Federation, put it, “Kenya looks forward to Chinese textile enterprises’ investment.” He believed that both sides would create a bigger market by taking advantage of China’s advanced technology and African preferential policies in the clothing and textile sector.
The continent’s potential is undisputed in the face of a relatively unfamiliar market environment; industrial analysts suggested that a careful analysis of local markets is a must for enterprises.
“Development of the textile industry and local needs differ among various African countries,” Luo Kun, Assistant Researcher with AsiaAfrica Development Research Institute of the State Council Development Research Center, told ChinAfrica, adding that the actual investment will vary depending upon local conditions peculiar to the geographic area or market. He suggested to carry out more technical cooperation between China and African countries with developed textile industries, such as Egypt and Sudan, while companies should take into consideration the higher investment cost and security issues when considering investment in some African countries with great potential in the textile industry, like tanzania.
Luo believed that it is an inevitable trend that Chinese enterprises establish industrial parks in Africa. “Making use of the industrial parks or free trade zones [established in Africa] can avoid vicious competition and a waste of investment and resources, so as to ensure market order.”
Government and industry associations should also offer guidance to help enterprises engaged in overseas investments integrate resources, avoid risk, and achieve mutual benefits and win-win situation for both sides, he added.
“They expressed keen interest in our brightcolored clothing,” said Mao, an exhibitor from Shanghai-based Flying Horse Import & Export Co.
Mao’s experience seems to gel with findings of official statistics from the organizing committee of Canton Fair, or China?Import and Export Fair, which suggest that there are increasing numbers of African businessman, especially in the clothing and textile sector, trading with China. At the 109th Canton Fair in 2011 the South African buyers increased by 21.4 percent. In terms of the clothing and textile sector, China exhibitors’ exports turnover to Africa at the Fair rose by $90 million, up 2.5 percent year on year.
Yao Qiao’e, a foreign trade manager of Quanzhou Caroline Garments Co. in southeast China’s coastal Fujian Province, was also upbeat.
“There is reason to become optimistic about our African market’s growth as African clients are easy to work with,” said Yao. “Most importantly, they recognize our brands.”
Africa, with its active economy and growth potential, is attracting the attention of Chinese textile enterprises in a big way. Meanwhile, its high-quality cotton, low labor costs, land resources and the priority policies and measures taken by African governments to support the textile industry is motivating more Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa.
Africa’s advantages
Soaring cotton prices in China, together with the rising costs and appreciation of the yuan, have put tremendous pressure on the textile and clothing industry, analysts said.
Meanwhile, Africa has substantially increased its cotton production. Cotton production in Mali, one of Africa’s major cotton producers, increased from 103,000 tons in 2010/11 to 171,000 tons in 2011/12. Francophone Africa’s production is expected to increase 25 percent to reach 619,000 tons in 2013, according to figures estimated by the International Cotton Advisory Committee.
The vast market and affluent resources in Africa make it a big target for the textile industry. Inaugurating “Origin Africa – Ethiopia 2012” textile expo, Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said the continent is attracting investments in the textile and clothing industry owing to availability of raw material and low labor costs.
Yao agreed, saying that her company saw great potential for textile and garment sector investment in Africa due to its low labor costs.
Chinese labor costs have soared in recent years despite a slowdown in the broader economy. Official data showed that in 2011, labor costs rose 10 to 30 percent at clothing manufacturers in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.
“Our products have entered the West African market, and we are planning to establish a factory there,” Yao added.
Zhejiang Province-based Yuemei Group provides a good example of Chinese enterprises developing the African market. The Yuemei Group, a textile manufacturing enterprise, owns clothing plants and sales offices in many African countries including Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon and Senegal. In Nigeria, Yuemei has built China’s first overseas textile industrial park designed to attract Chinese textile companies.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has a huge textile consumer market, but the textile manufacturing industry is a weak point in the economy, relying on imports for 80 percent of its textile products. In 2007, the company invested over $50 million to construct Yuemei Nigeria textile Industry Park, to facilitate more Chinese textile enterprises to do business abroad.
Yuemei has gradually created a complete production chain of spinning, weaving, embroidery, knitting, and garment making in the park, said its President Xu Zhiming.
Yuemei also boosts the local industrial development capability. During peak season, the company has outsourced to the local farmers, which allowed them to buy more than 4,000 weaving machines and to earn extra income of more than 40 million yuan ($6.3 million) annually.
Risks and opportunities
Recognizing the important economic role that the textile and apparel sector plays on the continent, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Botswana is developing an industrial development policy, attracting and encouraging foreign investment in Africa. For the industrial development policy, textile and apparel sector has been identified as one of the priority sectors by SACU member nations namely, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
Apart from SACU, African communities, including the Economic Community Of West African States, the Southern African Development Community, East African Community, not only enjoy collaborative business opportunities between community members, but can take advantage of the same. Exports and imports within member countries enjoy preferential tariff rates, which facilitate enterprises that develop in Africa. “As long as we enter one market [of community members], we will easily enter other markets,” said Yao.
Last December, China signed an agreement with four major African cotton-producing countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, to strengthen cooperation in cotton production.
Cooperation will include technology transfer, technical assistance in researches, provision of seeds, agricultural machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, funding of training projects, as well as exchanges of experience, in order to improve understandings of Chinese textile entrepreneurs toward Africa, and further encourage Chinese textile capital to Africa.
“In the longer term, we may relocate some of the textile and apparel industry into Africa,” said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming at the agreement signing ceremony, noting that there are already cases of such relocations.
Such cooperation will help boost cotton production in Africa. As Jas Bedi, Chairman of Kenya Association of Manufacturers and Africa Cotton and textile Industry Federation, put it, “Kenya looks forward to Chinese textile enterprises’ investment.” He believed that both sides would create a bigger market by taking advantage of China’s advanced technology and African preferential policies in the clothing and textile sector.
The continent’s potential is undisputed in the face of a relatively unfamiliar market environment; industrial analysts suggested that a careful analysis of local markets is a must for enterprises.
“Development of the textile industry and local needs differ among various African countries,” Luo Kun, Assistant Researcher with AsiaAfrica Development Research Institute of the State Council Development Research Center, told ChinAfrica, adding that the actual investment will vary depending upon local conditions peculiar to the geographic area or market. He suggested to carry out more technical cooperation between China and African countries with developed textile industries, such as Egypt and Sudan, while companies should take into consideration the higher investment cost and security issues when considering investment in some African countries with great potential in the textile industry, like tanzania.
Luo believed that it is an inevitable trend that Chinese enterprises establish industrial parks in Africa. “Making use of the industrial parks or free trade zones [established in Africa] can avoid vicious competition and a waste of investment and resources, so as to ensure market order.”
Government and industry associations should also offer guidance to help enterprises engaged in overseas investments integrate resources, avoid risk, and achieve mutual benefits and win-win situation for both sides, he added.