|
|
 |
Business | ||||||||||||
|
China Produces 20 Billion Garments Per YearChina, the world's largest textile and garment producer, now turns out more than 20 billion garments a year, tantamount to three garments for every person on Earth. China ranks first in the annual production capacity of cotton textiles, woolen fabrics, and chemical fiber garments, processing one-fourth of the world's fibers each year, according to State Administration of Textile Industry (SATI) sources.The textile sector was long China's pillar industry until the late 1980s when the sector's outdated equipment and bloated personnel stymied fast growth and profit. Through two years of restructuring in 1998 to 1999, the industry has made progress in cutting losses and reducing the number of spindles and employees. By the end of last year, the sector had cut down its production capacity by scrapping 9.06 million outmoded spindles and laying off 1.16 million employees, and generated a net profit of 800 million yuan. "China's textile sector has advantages in human and material resources in competition with its foreign counterparts," said Wang Tiankai, deputy director of SATI, adding that it is particularly so after the industry has kept improving its export product mix for higher added value in the past few years. "However, it lags behind in management and design capability, posing a threat to the industry's development after China joins the World Trade Organization, said Wang. Chinese textile and garment exports now account for 13 percent of the world's total and 23 percent of the country's domestic exports. The sector earned 43.1 billion U.S. dollars last year.
 In This Section 
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright by People's Daily Online, all right reserved | | Mirror in U.S. | Mirror in Japan | Mirror in Edu-Net | Mirror in Tech-Net | |
