After China, South Korea And Japan Held In Qingdao, They Re Examined The Hot Topic Of Global Textile Supply Chain In The Era Of Epidemic

On September 6, 2023, the 11th China Korea Japan Fiber Industry Cooperation Conference was held in Qingdao, China. The meeting was hosted by China Textile Industry Federation, Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and co sponsored by Shandong Textile and Clothing Industry Association and Qingdao Zhongfang Yilian Investment Group Co., Ltd. Korea Fiber Industry Federation and Japan Fiber Industry Alliance led delegations to attend the meeting. The three parties had in-depth exchanges on issues such as the development status and prospects of China, South Korea and Japan's textile and clothing industry, and the thinking of the textile and clothing industry in the post epidemic era. And reached consensus on hot issues such as jointly promoting textile and clothing trade exchanges, jointly building a mutually beneficial and win-win industrial chain supply chain cooperation system, and enhancing the resilience of regional industrial development.

Group photo of the representative group of the Three Kingdoms Meeting

Opening speech

Xia Lingmin, secretary-general of the China Textile Industry Federation, said in his speech that the China South Korea Japan Fiber Industry Cooperation Conference has been held for more than ten years since it was first held in 2010. It is not only an important platform for the three textile industries to communicate and seek consensus, but also an important witness to the continuous development of the global textile industry chain and supply chain in sincere cooperation.

He said that promoting high-level opening up is China's core development strategy, and actively promotes the achievement of regional free trade platforms such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), demonstrating China's determination to seek high-quality and sustainable development in open cooperation and benign competition. The textile industry is a leading industry in China's opening up and international development. It always adheres to the development concept of deep integration into the world, vigorously promotes its own transformation and upgrading, and takes the construction of a stable, advanced and open modern Chinese textile industry system as an important part of promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the global industrial chain supply chain. At the same time, China's textile industry has always been willing to work together with industry colleagues from all countries on the same journey.

Cui Bingwu, president of the Korea Fiber Industry Federation, said in his speech that in the past three years, the global textile and clothing industry has undergone major changes in the industrial pattern due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, weak consumer demand, and the restructuring of the global supply chain. In this case, South Korea's textile and clothing industry actively cultivates the intelligent manufacturing capacity of clothing, builds a metacosmic industrial cluster, promotes the intelligence and automation of manufacturing sites, and cultivates digital talents, and promotes the innovation and development of the textile and clothing industry through unremitting efforts.

He also emphasized that the textile and clothing industries of China, South Korea and Japan should pay more attention to the value of environmental protection and digital transformation, and hoped that on the basis of good cooperation, the textile industries of the three countries would focus on more innovative and revolutionary themes for the future, and promote deeper practical cooperation on cooperation projects including tripartite conferences and forums, To achieve a higher level of mutual benefit and win-win results.

In his speech, Kenichi Fujichi, vice president and secretary-general of Japan Fiber Industry Alliance, said that the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on Japan's economy was also stabilizing, and economic activities were evolving towards normalization. However, the rising prices of raw materials and energy have become an unstable factor in enterprise activities and consumption. The Japanese fiber industry firmly believes that in order to improve the economic growth rate, it is necessary to carry out digital transformation and carbon neutral reform. In addition, we should promote regional economic cooperation in the field of trade and see it as an excellent opportunity to further expand business flows and create demand in the global market.

He firmly believes that the fiber industry of China, Japan and South Korea is a cooperative partner. In order to grow and develop together, we should work together to maintain the spirit of leading the world fiber industry and strengthen mutual trust.

Yuan Hongping, Deputy Secretary General and Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the China Textile Industry Federation, Zhu Mengling, Executive Vice President of the Korea Fiber Industry Federation, and Fuzhe Hyunichi, Vice President and Secretary General of the Japan Fiber Industry Alliance, introduced the representatives from China, South Korea and Japan respectively. Xia Lingmin, Secretary General of China Textile Industry Federation, presided over the opening session.

keynote presentations

At the meeting, Sun Ruizhe, president of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation and China Textile Industry Federation, delivered a keynote report entitled "Practice and Prospect of China's Textile Industry's Integration into the Global Supply Chain System". Sun Ruizhe introduced the new trend of adjustment of the global textile supply chain layout, the integration of China's textile industry into the world, ensuring the smooth operation of the global supply chain, building a more resilient regional textile supply chain system in China, South Korea and Japan, and the Chinese practice of building a modern textile industry system.

He pointed out that the current layout of the global textile supply chain shows a new trend of adjustment, which is manifested in the wider participation of China's textile industry and the deeper promotion of the innovative development of the global textile industry chain and supply chain; The distribution pattern of the manufacturing end of the global textile supply chain shows a trend of decentralization, with an increased distribution in emerging and developing economies; The global textile supply chain is facing a major era of change, and it is urgent to enhance its development resilience.

"China's textile industry integrates into the world and ensures the stable operation of the global supply chain", Sun Ruizhe believes that the process of sustainable development of China's textile industry is also the process of constantly integrating into the global textile industry system and fully guaranteeing and supporting the stable operation of the global textile supply chain. First, the construction of China's textile manufacturing capacity is a strong foundation for the stability of the global textile supply system; Secondly, China's textile industry system structure has been upgraded to enrich the supply of textile products in the global terminal market; Third, China's textile industry has accelerated its international development and supported the adjustment and upgrading of the global supply chain layout.

He said that China is an important link in the global textile supply chain. Starting from market-oriented reform and opening up, China's textile industry has learned high-quality resources and advanced experience from the global industry to achieve rapid development, and has also contributed its basic strength and innovative achievements to the development of the global textile industry. The Chinese textile industry and the global textile supply chain have always been interdependent and share weal and woe. The value of the supply chain comes from collaboration, and the vitality of innovation comes from openness. The Chinese textile industry will always practice the original intention of openness, cooperation and synergy, further integrate into the global textile supply chain system, and serve the innovative development of the global industry.

When introducing the content of "building a more resilient regional textile supply chain system in China, South Korea and Japan", Sun Ruizhe said that the textile industry cooperation between China, South Korea and Japan has a long history, and they have established an intertwined and integrated industrial chain and supply chain system. At present, China's complete textile industry chain with advanced, intelligent and green manufacturing as its core features is still complementary to the industrial structure of South Korea and Japan with high-performance, functional fiber industry chain and modern fashion industry as the main body. At the same time, he also put forward three suggestions on the direction of future deepening cooperation in the textile industry of China, South Korea and Japan: first, foster a better economic and trade cooperation ecology; Second, create regional collaborative innovation advantages; Third, jointly promote responsible development.

In terms of "China's practice of building a modern textile industry system", Sun Ruizhe said that China's textile industry is the most stable output end of the global textile supply chain, which can enrich the supply of textile products in the global terminal market and support the adjustment and upgrading of the layout of the global textile supply chain. He also introduced to the delegates seven actions to build a modern textile industry system, namely: promoting textile scientific and technological innovation for industrial progress, highlighting the upgrading of textile fashion led by culture, practicing green textile manufacturing and fulfilling social responsibilities, establishing coordinated and interconnected regional financial development of textile, promoting the improvement of dual cycle international supply chain Promote the deep integration of digital economy and textile industry, and support the construction of textile human resources for modern development.

Dialogue 1 Current Situation and Prospect of China, Korea and Japan's Textile and Garment Industry

On the topic of "Status quo and prospect of textile and clothing industry development", the representatives of the three parties introduced the development of fiber industry in various countries after the epidemic, the impact of the epidemic on fiber industry, changes in import and export, and exchanged information. Zhu Mengling, Executive Vice President of Korea Fiber Industry Federation, presided over the issue.

Xu Yingxin, Vice President of the China Textile Industry Federation and President of the Textile Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, spoke on behalf of the Chinese side. He pointed out that in 2020-2022, China's textile industry, under the impact of the new coronal epidemic, gave full play to the stable operation advantages of the complete industrial system. In the three years, the production and marketing situation was basically stable, and export competitiveness was released, The overall development trend is good. However, due to the weak demand in the international market, since 2023, the development pressure of China's textile industry has increased, and the growth of major operating indicators has been under pressure. The foundation for stability and improvement still needs to be consolidated. As for the development trend and direction of China's textile industry, he believed that it should comply with the changes of the times, integrate into the trend of the times, and establish a modern industrial system that is adaptable to the requirements of the times, high-quality and resilient. It is expected that by 2035, China's textile industry will be able to achieve new development focusing on promoting high-quality and modernization.

Zhu Mengling, executive vice president of Korea Fiber Industry Federation, said that South Korea's fiber industry has made great contributions to the country's economic development. According to the statistics of the Korea Fiber Industry Federation, there are 47000 textile and clothing enterprises in South Korea, with 250000 employees. South Korea's clothing trade accounts for 1.5% of the global trade, showing an increasing trend. But like other countries, South Korea also needs to face problems such as sustainability, digital transformation and supply chain innovation. To this end, South Korea will strive to build a resource recycling ecosystem of the textile and clothing industry chain, build an intelligent production system, build a digital ecosystem, and transform from efficiency to toughness to a sustainable and stable industry chain by expanding the market and increasing investment.

According to the introduction of Yoshio Nagasaki of the Japan Chemical Fiber Association, under the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic, the clothing consumption of major fibers in Japan has shrunk significantly, and will gradually become stable and warmer in 2022. At present, the demand of Japan's textile industry is recovering. In the future, Japan's fiber industry will strengthen its industrial base from the aspects of digital revolution, talent, support for overseas development, sustainable development, trade, strengthening information dissemination, brand strength and tax system. The Japan Chemical Fiber Association will continue to discuss PET recycling, biochemical fiber, micro plastic issues, etc. In addition, it will also actively participate in various seminars, participate in environmental fiber standardization operations, clothing traceability survey and develop fiber chip detection methods.

Dialogue 2 Thoughts on textile and clothing industry in the post epidemic era

On the topic of "Thinking about the textile and clothing industry in the post epidemic era", the three representatives made in-depth discussions and exchanges on the value and role of oriental culture in the innovation and development of contemporary fashion, the digital transformation of the fiber industry, and sustainability. This topic was presided over by Kenichi Fuji, Vice President and Secretary General of Japan Fiber Industry Alliance.

The Value and Role of Oriental Culture in the Innovation and Development of Contemporary Fashion

Chen Dapeng, Vice President of China Textile Industry Federation and President of China Garment Association, from the relationship between culture and fashion, the influence of oriental culture on clothing, reshaping the connotation of oriental culture, creating a fashion ecology with world influence, the future of oriental culture, and the prospect of fashion innovation and development, This paper introduces the value and role of oriental culture in the innovation and development of contemporary fashion. How to reshape the connotation of oriental culture and create a fashion ecology with world influence? He believes that we should first pay attention to the contemporary expression of traditional clothing culture, and more importantly, we should achieve cultural self-confidence from the bottom of our hearts. At present, the Chinese culture represented by national style and national trend is releasing commercial value in a way that has never been seen before. Not only that, more and more Asian brands and designers are beginning to emerge on the world stage, and the world is full of vitality because of colorful civilization. We should continue to innovate the cooperation model to jointly build a globally influential oriental fashion discourse system, and work together to reorganize our packaging before starting.

Green transformation

Zheng Minhe, executive director of the Korea Fiber Industry Federation, introduced the exploration and application of the Korean textile and clothing industry in the digital field from the three fields of planning, production and circulation. He said that digital technology can create new markets in the textile and clothing industry, improve production efficiency and enhance customer value. At the same time, digitalization can accelerate the circular economy of the textile and clothing industry value chain. He introduced the potential of the Korean textile and clothing industry in digitalization, such as big data, AI, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and the metauniverse, which can promote the innovation of the value chain of the Korean textile and clothing industry. He also introduced the enterprise cases of shortening the manufacturing cycle through data solutions and 3D design in the planning link, realizing a large number of small quantity and multi variety production by building innovative production infrastructure in the production link, and promoting e-commerce development and creating new markets by providing customers with differentiated experience in the circulation link.

Jin Guangri, the vice president of Korea Kelou Virtual Fashion Co., Ltd., showed the participants six kinds of fabrics, three of which are digital fabrics, and three of which are real fabrics. He also compared the photos of real models wearing real clothes with those of real models wearing 3D clothes, which shows that the development of 3D technology has made it difficult to distinguish the true from the false. In South Korea, garment enterprises have been carrying out innovative digital transformation, and marketing digitalization is the focus of South Korean enterprises. E-Commerce companies collate data in the order of sales, describe the details of product pictures with 3D technology and make most products. Due to the shortage of human resources and resources, South Korea has made rapid changes in digital transformation, and the introduction of digital professionals has also accelerated the pace of digital transformation.

Hezhitai, CEO of Korea D3D Co., Ltd., introduced the enterprise's exploration in protecting intellectual property in the field of digital design. He said that in order to protect the intellectual property rights of designers and reduce the threshold of the industry, they have developed the "Digital Fashion Transformers", which can quickly realize clothing design through digital technology; "Digital fabric" is another business segment of D3D. This digital fabric can reflect the visual performance very similar to the actual fabric on the Internet, and can present different colors and different raw material combinations, supporting designers to present different clothing products. He also said that digital design and circulation have become another business opportunity for designers. In the Metauniverse Factory of D3D, Korean designers can not only sell their own design works, but also circulate their own products. This kind of digital design has become a trend.

Li Zaiyuan, the general manager of Hakoda Industry Co., Ltd. in South Korea, said that the digital operation and Internet of Things system of Hakoda Industry were widely introduced into knitting factories, printing and dyeing factories, garment production sewing processes and automated sewing systems. Haotian not only has 200000 material databases, but also provides integrated clothing production services for fashion brand release and growth. For example, based on the sales price and customer information, recommend the most reasonable cloth, sewing, and style, and confirm the clothing manufacturing and exhibition planning services for the budget required in the production process. In the production phase, it can also provide data based MD with automated solutions for comprehensive analysis of data, automatically visualize the product, customer, channel, and marketing data, provide charts, and instantly confirm the KPI achievement rate and analysis report through the enterprise customized dashboard.

Sustainability (joint report)

Bao Xing, Director of the Environment and Safety Committee of the Japan Fiber Industry Alliance, said that at present, from the perspective of tackling global warming, the circular economy has received extensive attention, chemical management and solving the safety problem of fiber fragments, decarbonization problem of global warming, how to transition to a circular economy The issue of ensuring biodiversity and other issues related to the global environment has also attracted continuous discussion from all sectors of society. He said that since 2022, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan has successively launched a number of policies such as "New Fiber Vision", "Technology Roadmap", "Report on the Seminar on Fiber Resource Recycling System", and actively explored the path of transition to a circular economy. In the future, Japan Textile Association will further understand the market demand from the aspects of ESG (circular economy, protection of human rights and information disclosure) to protect the interests of consumers.

Yan Yan, director of the Social Responsibility Office of the China Textile Industry Federation, introduced the progress and practice of climate innovation in China's textile and clothing industry at the meeting. She said that China has clearly put forward the goals of "carbon peak" by 2030 and "carbon neutrality" by 2060, and sustainable consumption has become a new driving force for green transformation and development. Chinese textile enterprises such as Jinba Men's Wear, Li Ning, Taipingniao, Luolai Home Textile and Ordos are also actively carrying out the dual carbon work. In addition, in order to standardize the application of climate change achievements in the market, the China Textile Federation has initiated the drafting of group standards. The Technical Specifications for Textile Carbon Labeling, the Technical Specifications for Zero Carbon Textile Product Evaluation, and the Technical Evaluation Specifications for Zero Carbon Textile Factory of Textile Enterprises will create a more systematic platform for the industry. Through the construction of a database, we will focus on product carbon labels, Formulate a series of standards to better serve the practice of enterprises and deepen the work of the industry.

Jin Yuqian, chief researcher of Korea FITI Research Institute, said that the problem of raw material supply was considered to be a major threat to the circular economy. We should not regard garment waste as simply garbage, but as raw materials to be reintegrated into the garment industry. For this reason, the European Union has proposed a digital product passport system, the United States has vigorously promoted the digital label system, many international fashion brands are introducing monitoring platforms, and ESG results management and digital supply chain matching platforms are being put into use. In 2020, the Korean fiber garment industry conducted a self-assessment on the ESG achievements of the fiber garment circular economy, and decided to develop and popularize the tracking and diagnosis platform to accelerate the transformation of the circular economy. With the change of the global fiber clothing market, we need to establish a stable circular structure, carry out digital sharing, build mutual networks, realize the transformation of the circular structure, and share with the demand side, so as to respond to the huge changes in the market and industry.

China, South Korea and Japan signed the fiber industry cooperation agreement

At the meeting, representatives from China, Japan and South Korea conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions on many hot topics, and reached the following consensus: in the post epidemic era, in the face of the world's unprecedented changes in a century, the three parties should further strengthen exchanges and mutual learning, jointly promote textile and clothing trade exchanges, and jointly build a mutually beneficial and win-win industrial chain supply chain cooperation system, Strengthen the resilience of regional industrial development; The three parties will continue to focus on hot issues in the industry and promote cooperation in various fields, including: China, South Korea and Japan's textile and clothing trade liberalization, fashion leadership and innovation, digital technology, sustainable development action, etc; In order to continue to play the role of the three countries' fiber industry cooperation conference as a platform, the three parties agreed to hold the 12th Korea Japan China Fiber Industry Cooperation Conference in South Korea.

After the meeting, representatives from China, South Korea and Japan also visited the Qingdao Oriental Fashion Center and watched the opening ceremony of 2023 Qingdao Fashion Week, the Oriental Fashion Season.