China-Africa textile cooperation a key topic at Belt and Road conference
Huzhou, located in China’s northern Zhejiang province, recently hosted the biannual Belt and Road Textile Conference.
China’s government-spearheaded Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a large-scale infrastructure development strategy involving 70 networked countries. The BRI is widely considered to be a flagship policy of the nation’s current president, Xi Jinping.
Of particular note was a speech made during the conference by deputy director of consumer products at the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Cao Xuejun.
Ms Cao underscored how the government’s 14th five-year plan period (2021-2025) marks a new and critical stage in China’s economic development. She said that the nation’s textile industry must, fundamentally, meet the needs - and aim to improve the lives - of its citizens.
The wider industry “theme” must be to promote overall “high-quality” development and, significantly, make greater inroads into the structural reform of domestic supply chains, she added. Ms Cao emphasised that a flexible, safer and more reliably supply chain will help the country achieve “a higher level of textile power”.
Later, vice chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), Xu Yingxin, painted China’s textile and apparel sector as a “leading and exemplary” BRI industry, with more than $11 billion in foreign direct investment since 2000, “mainly to countries and regions along the Belt and Road”. Mr Xu described adhering to the joint, concrete construction of the BRI as the consensus of the broader industry.
In addition to Chinese delegates from up and down the country, local media also singled out attendees from the Kenya Investment Authority and Sri Lanka Joint Apparel Association Forum. Representatives from multiple regions both inside and outside China reportedly exchanged perspectives on “sustainable” cross-border investment along the Belt and Road, as well as the mutual promotion of its constituent markets.
Significant announcements included the establishment of a China-Africa textile industry development endowment fund, plus what was described as the first oversees liaison offices of the China Textile Go Global Union in five countries: Egypt, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Zambia.
Image: CNTAC.
