letter

Dear readers

March comes， bringing natural charms back to life after a freezing， biting-cold and vapid winter， the winter jasmine bursting into golden blossom in Beijing. Spring sets in.

What comes into spotlight marks even more of an eye-catch in the political scenery of the country. As always in this month of the year， the well-known “Pair Congresses” are convened in Beijing， summoning the deputies from the National Peoples Congress （Chinas lawmaker） and Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference （CPPCC， the countrys top advisory body） to the Chinese capital listen to， discuss， review and pass the government report delivered by the Premier of the State Council. Economically， Chinas growth rate is termed as “steady” for the domestic gross product （GDP， 2014） that reached 63.6 trillion yuan at 7.4 percent increase over the previous year， surpassing 10，000 billion dollars for the fi rst time in history， making China one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.

In view of textile economic landscape， the year of 2014 ran into a slowdown at the growth speed of important indicators with investment， export， main business income and profi ts， marking different percentage point downs respectively by 3.9， by 6.1， by 4.2 and by 8.1 in sequence of the above-mentioned performances.

Just like the economic scenario in the country， the economic growth in this humongous textile industry can also be termed as “steady”， in spite of diffi culties that challenged the textile players standing up to the distressing factors in raw material， labor costs， international competition， retail teetering and environmental pressure. The domestic cotton price was way up by 30% over that of international cotton， the import is leashed by the government on quota basis， making it hard for textile companies to balance their production costs by getting a hold of more cotton from international market， while the paychecks are increasing by 10% on average.

On the sales side， the market shares of textile and apparel imports dropped by 0.8 percentage points in U.S.， by 3.9 points in Japan and by 0.5 points in EU， and domestic retails in bricks-and-mortar shops also fell by 0.7 percentage points. In a sharp contrast， the textile businesses on e-commerce deals grew by 39.2 percent， suggesting the brand companies were well adapted to the new business model and sales pipeline， fi tting in production chain with new shopping terminals.

Either sales in real shops or in virtual world prove to be very important for production that can be structurally optimized to cater to innovative sales model， and business rendezvous， like trade fair and exhibitions， is instrumental in helping textile industry move ahead in market-oriented direction. The biggest textile and apparel trade fair conglomeration， known as the “Big Fours” - Yarn Expo， Intertextile， CHIC， PH Value （International Knitting Trade Show）， is now under way in Shanghai in March 18-20， providing a business opportunity for suppliers and clients to meet， merchandise， make and move into a prospect in 2015 with a guarded optimism for the better.