Ｎｅｗ Ｌｏｏｋ： ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ Ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ Ｔｏｗｎ ｏｆ Ｓｉｌｋ

By the alternative names ofShenghu， Shengchuan， Shunshui，Shengze Town is located in thesoutheastern part of Wujiang city ofJiangsu Province of China， and liesin the border area between Jiangsuand zhejiang. Faming for its beingrich in silk， Shengze Town is famousas Suzhou， Hangzhou and Huzhouin history， all of which are called theFour Silk Capital of China.

Silk and textile production is thecore industry with a long history of1，000 years in Shengze Town. Earlyin Tang and Song dynasty， the silkand textile products were consideredas tribute to the government; and inmiddle Ming Dynasty， the silk andtextile products can be seen in themarket.

Shengze Town is one of the earliestareas opening to the overseas investors.Since Qing Dynasty， the governmentbegan to set the custom here to promotethe international trade of silk to theoverseas markets. According to thestatistics， in China， nearly one sixth ofthe total exported silk and half of theexported MMF fabrics are shipped fromShengze to，the outside world， to 100countries and regions around the world.

In 2006， the industrial output ofShengze Town broke through 40 billionYuan and the financial revenueexceeding 1.93 billion Yuan. Asone of the most important silk andtextile production， distribution andexport bases in China， there areover 2，000 textile enterprises inShengze town， forming a completetextile industrial chain ranging fromsilk/PET chips spinning， weaving，printing and dyeing， deep processingto the production of garments andaccessories， with an annual productionability of two million tons of PETfilament， six billion meter long fabric，and with the ability to print dyetwo billion meter long fabric， to deepprocessing two billion meter \"longfabric and to produce 50 millionpieces/suits of garments annually andrespectively.

Recently， the Shengze Town boastsof top-grade international advancedspinning， weaving， printing and dyeingequipments， and， till now， the amountof shuttleless looms has increased from2，800 in 1998 to 80，000.

Why is Shengze Town developing sofast?

One major reason is the well-integrated system of production anddistribution. Oriented by the large-scaledspecialized textile market， the turnoverof Shengze Town has ranked for the firstplace among the whole nation in 2005and 2006 continuously. Thereinto， theChina Oriental Silk Market has played apivotal role in the economic developmentof this area.

China Oriental SilkMarket

Established in Oct. 1986， ChinaOriental Silk Market is characterizedby one of the biggest textiles industrialmarket， and price information centerin China. Within four square kilometers，there are over five thousand textileenterprises， dealing with over tencategories and thousands of varietiesof products， such as silk/MMF fabric，home textile fabric， garment and textilemachinery accessories， and so on.In 2005， the turnover of the marketexceeded 30 billion Yuan; furthermore，the turnover reached a new level in thefollowing year of 2006， achieving theforemost place of the Chinese Top Tentextile industrial markets for two yearscontinuously.

To date， several new programs areon the march， and nearly ten projectstotalizing 2.6 billion Yuan will befinished in succession. Meanwhile，matching with the public serviceplatform， such as the E-commerceinformation center， the textile technologycenter， foreign trade consultation servicecenter， and so on， this functional marketsystem would accelerate the industrialupgrade and restructure of ShengzeTown obviously.

In addition， the districts aroundShengze Town began to make it as asample to seek more opportunities inthe textile industrial field. Gradually，oriented by the Shengze textile industry，districts in the cities of Wujiang， Jiaxing(a city in Zhejiang Province)， andHuzhou together with Shengze cameinto being the No.1 textile industrialbase in China， with 120，000 advancedshuttleless looms， and a productionability to produce ten billion meter longfabric annualy.

Textile Fabrics Price Index

Nowadays， traditional developmentmode of textile industry in China issuffering several barricades， such asenvironment protection， the increasingcost of labor force， etc.， so that the textileindustry in China has to find a new wayto go ahead. E-commerce is the rightway.

On March， 10th， 2007， governorsfrom National Development and ReformCommission， Ministry of Commerce，research experts from Chinese Academyof Social Sciences， State InformationCenter， China National Textile ApparelCouncil and famous Chinese textileenterprises gathered in Shengze Town， todiscuss the construction of China Textile Fabric Price Index system， which isconsidered to be of great importanceto readjust the industrial structure andincrease the price of textile products if itis established successfully.

\"To establish the price indexsystem is an inevitable process fortextile industrial development. Since2001， after entering the WTO， Chinesetextile industry sought more spacesand opportunities to develop， and themarket has been enlarged markedlyduring the first four years. However，a challenge was placed in front ofthe industry: the scale of market wasenlarging， while the industrial profitis falling down sharply. What is thereason? Without a reference pricesystem of numerous textile products，when we are doing trade with exportedenterprises and international buyers，domestic textile enterprises andsuppliers are situated at an inferiorposition to bargain， leading to areduction in profit badly， so that itis vital to establish a comprehensiveprice index system in China for thosetextile enterprises.\" Said Mr. GongJinli， Deputy Director of StatisticsCenter of CNTAC.

According to Mr. Xu Ming， theMayor of Wujiang City， \"on the basisof Shengze Town， the biggest textileindustrial base in China， to establishthis textile fabric price index system is abright choice.\" \"The textile industry inShengze， not only the production scaleor technical equipment， but also thequality of products， has been improvedsignificantly these years. In this newcompetitive environment， through theestablishment of textile products priceindex system， the textile enterprisesin Shengze could speed up their stepsto readjust the industrial structure，and promote products innovation andupgrade. It could be beneficial to confirmthe authority of Shengze Town during theprocess of forming textile price aroundChina.\"

Mr. Wu Xinxiang，Director of China OrientalSilk Market ManagementCommittee， introduced:\"Shengze， being one ofthe most important textileindustrial clusters in China，and possessing abundantexperiences of informationprogramming， is the rightplace to establish this priceindex system. Furthermore， the Shengzegovernment and the China OrientalSilk Market Management Committeewould join together and spare no effortto promote this work， with the supportof human resource， capital and so on.We will search and collect informationand statistics not only from the famousand large textile enterprises in ourlocal markets， but also from otherspecialized textile industrial markets，making the China Textile FabricPrice Index system be the representativenationwide.\"

Prospect

However， several weak pointsbarricaded the development ofShengze Town， as Mr. Qian Yunxin，the Vice Secretary of the Committeeof Communist Part of Shengze Town，introduced: \"there are mainly threedisadvantages for Shengze， comparingwith other markets in China. Firstly，the production ability here exceededseriously， meanwhile， facing a highcost and lack of labor force， the profitfor each enterprise lowered downsharply. In Shengze， nearly 90% ofthe total industrial enterprises aretextile companies; only 10% are inother industrial fields， of which thedevelopment spaces are very limited.Thirdly， due to the processing systemof weaving and dyeing， environmentprotection became a key factor for theharmonious development of society andthe textile industry here. \"

Mr. Qian said: \"During the11th Five-Year-Plan period，Shengze will， through self-innovation and technicaladvancement， promote thetransformation of textileindustrial growth mode，emphasize the conversionfrom QuantitativeExpansion mode toQuality and Benefitincreasing mode，and insist on theway of harmoniousand sustainabledevelopment.\"

As Mr. Qianintroduced， in thefuture， Shengze will take the followingsteps:

To speed up the upgrade of textilemachinery and equipment， in order tomeet the international advanced leveland improve the competitiveness;

To exploit and readjust thestructure of textile products. Thecompetitiveness of products is thekey of industrial competitiveness. Thedifferential products are more favorablein markets， especially with high value-added and techniques. During the 11thFive-Year-Plan period， Shengze willoptimize its textile industrial chain，referring to the MMF raw materialprocessing， weaving and so on，which could be useful to improve thecompetitiveness of the whole textileindustry comprehensively;

Branding is anotherimportant strategyfor Shengze. Globalcompetition never limitswithin the quality and price of the products，the competition amongbrands is more fierceand intensive comparatively. Althoughthe output of MMF weaving in Shengzeaccounted for 80% of the total amountin China， there are only four brandsmeeting the provincial level. In thefuture， integrating with the restructureand upgrade of China Oriental SilkMarket， Shengze will make effort toproduce more famous MMF brands withindependent property rights;

Self-innovation is essentials. Inorder to improve the quality and technicallevel of textile products， Shengze hasto， led by the local government， withthe market-driven operation mode andenterprises' management， strengthenthe upgrading of textile industry on thebases of establishing textile industrialresearch institute. Making the instituteas the core to set the public innovationplatform， it could promote the integrationof production， learning and research oftextile industry in Shengze Town;

To emphasize the construction ofindustrial standard system， such as thesocial compliance system， the energyconservation system， etc. To gain a fairopportunity in the international market isan eternal target.