Dear readers

As working bees start to buzz among floral clusters for pollination， we are also as busy as bees to step out of our hives， the offices in the building clusters， to take on Spring in-site survey journey， a normal practice of factory tour organized by China National Textile and Apparel Council in every Spring， to see and find out whats going on in textile industry for policy analysis and boots-on-the-ground report， helping policy makers find solutions to problems and ways to growth advantages.

Geographically， the routined fact-finding study tour covers all the important textile and apparel production areas across the country， including some of the most prominent industry clusters engaged in mass product-specific productions in the south， east， and west of China.

The textile industry remains a pillar sector of national economy， providing over 22 million jobs， boosting local economic and social development， driving consumption growth that can obviously be indicated in both off-line shopping malls and on-line buying spree in spite of the fact that the year of 2016 witnessed a decline of 7.2 percentage points in the fixed- assets investment and also 7.2 percent drop in export. Ningbo city， seated in Zhejiang province， has been one of the largest textile players in China， with over 120.68 billion yuan in textile and apparel output value last year， and has several world-class brands in terms of business turnovers with respect to suits， shirts and knitting apparel production as is the case of FIRS， YOUNGOR and SHEN ZHOU International. Instead of visiting these brands mammoths， the study team where I was visited PEACE BIRD， one of the domestic brands over 20 years， which has made much headway in sales growth by virtue of changing to new environment in business models in the course of development in corporate history. Mr. Zhang Jiangchuan， chairman of the company， spoke highly of the Internet pipeline that drove his online sale from mere hundreds of thousands Yuan in the first year when he started e-commerce that rolled out 500，000 yuan on the first Singles Day （Nov. 11， Chinas online buying festival organized by Alibaba many years ago）， and around two million yuan in the following years each with the exception of the last Singles Day， Nov. 11， 2016 witnessed a breath-taking sale for 615 million yuan （approx. 100 million dollars） just one day！ The success in online sales proves a good example and even a shock for those still shuffling along the road， suspicious of online business and market demand， but the over-night windfall also brings about supply problems that pose quite a challenge to brand owners who grumble a lot when they have not replenished store racks in due course， as a consequence of lead-time contradiction on supply front with the fast-growing sales on market side. The whole supply chain established in conventional way of business is found incompatible with the new approach on line， making brands companies on the line， not on line！ Building a flexible， quick， efficient， innovative and responsible supply chain requires a vertically-integrated system on mutually-beneficial and corporate-compliant terms to stay competitive in the new business climate. For this goal， a national organization， like CNTAC， can play a great role in harmonizing interests of various stake-holders along the industrial supply chain to make the industry greater again！ This is not the final report out of the Spring survey tour， but something that flashes into my mind for an ingredient to the whole concepts in designing a growth chart.

Zhao Hong Editor-in-Chief

April， 2017