BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s textile industry has entered a new development phase by making overseas layout, according to the National Textile Industry Transfer Work Conference held last Friday.

“The Belt and Road Initiative has provided an unprecedented opportunity for China’s textile industry,” said Xia Lingmin, vice president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), adding that China’s acceleration of overseas layout was the result of market option and efficiency priority.

“On the one hand, China’s textile enterprises have built processing bases overseas in a bid to reduce labor costs. On the other hand, some enterprises seek to establish multinational groups with global competitive edge by settling different links of the industrial chain in different countries,” explained Xia.

According to statistics released by the CNTAC, by the end of 2014, Chinese enterprises had set up over 2,600 textile manufacturing, trading and design enterprises in at least 100 countries and regions. In 2015, Chinese textile enterprises have accelerated its pace to “go out.”

China has been a big textile exporter for a long time. However, its textile industry has been dampened by the sluggish economic situation worldwide in recent years. Xia noted that “going out” was an important selection for the textile industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).  Enditem