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Chongqmg，a sonthwestern Clty thatwas once lIle second largest in China's mostpopulous province of Sichuan，stood outtO be a Clty Of metropolitan and localcunural charms of beauty It 1 s nowone of the rour。peclal cities(Beijing，shanghai，tiajijin，and chongqlng)anderdirect jUllSdictlon from Chinese centralgovemment.

Chongqing is known more for ItShOt and。picy boiling food than for itscotton textlle industry which is almostnothing when．I compares with thosecotton spinnlng giants in China's coastalprovlnces The organlzer of Chlna’sCotton and Cotton TeXtlle Conferencechose chis remote Clty for itS 5th sessionfnr what seems no justlfiable reasons atall But the fact ls that they have goodreasons to bribg this outback Clty to theforefront of pubIic attention.

Big PrOducer and TIDOrter

Of allthe lmportant factors to driveChlne se textlle industry rward，twopriority factors or“Two Plus”dFlyers，often refeiTed to technologv and brand．a(chǎn)ye the most dynamlc fuels to the growthengine of ItS cotton textlle indUStrv

Mr X u Wenying，Pre sldent ofChlna Cotton textIleAssoclatlon，presented theandionce With a gorgeouspicture Of ChInese cottontextilo growth that sawIadder-llke ave raged14％growth rate during2ooo-2oo6．buI more 1lkea frogleap rrom 34.43million s pjndles in 2oootO 89.2 million s plndlesin 2oo6.

Bv 2oo6 China cotton textileindustry had lnstalled 89 2 million ringsplnnlng spindles，1.8 millon rotor andopen-end spind Jes and 1.1 million sets oflOoms See the figure as below.

ChInese Cotton SpInnlng Capaclty InSDlndles D Llrlno 2ooo—2oo6

The lncreased capaclty is drivenby the dOWn St ream ma rket demandempbatlcaIly for quality yarns and c1oththat demonstrate Chlnese technitalachmvements ln productlon Mr XuWe“y…g recalled“Three Frees and oBeRefinement'’strategy that started since2ooo The Lap-free process as a resull oflnstalled cleanlng-carding cornbinationrange(or blow-room 1lne)has beenincreased from 21.7％in 2ooo to 4o％in2oo6，whlle Knot-free yafn up to 56.6％，and shuttle-rree loom cloth up to 59 8％in total Droductlon One refinementrefers to the ratio of cornbed yarn in totalyarn prodnctlon，lt accounts for 25.8％ofthe total.

The sclentific and technolOglcalcontrlbutlon has added much value tothe increased prodUCtlon capaclty，thehlghly advanced machines see a graduaJexpogrowth，which shows internatlonalmarket favor for Chlnese cotton yarn andc1o『h Nevenheless，China imports a 1otof yatn hat sees about 26o，ooo tons Oftrade denClt ao per Jan-Aug trade 6gnrethis year while the trade denClt fnr cottonyarn was even larger as ChiIla imports938.OOO tons as compared with 577.3ootons of expoft m 2oo6

rhe to cal yarn trade(import andexport)is a blt over 1 million tons onyearly average since 2oo2，which doesnot much llnpact chinese s pinnlng，asSUCh a trade volume ls like a Deanut ascompared with big capaclty of apProx9o mlllion spindles the state statlstlcsfigure shows 12o mlllion。pindles)Whatworries fhe industry is how cotton supPIycan catch“p Wlth the ever-lncreaslngProductlon of。pinnlng?

COtton ShOrt，Price High and PrOfit DOWn

Natlorlal Btlreau Of Statlstlcs rcleasedthe cotton prodLlCtion for 6 73 mllliontons m 2oo6．1.4l millioll tons more than2ool with arl increase of 26．5％SomeInternational sources belleve that theoffclal figHre was not taken for granted，fnr the recent cotton study tour Organlzedbv Internacionlll TeXtlle ManllfacttlrersFede ratlon(TTMF)folind Oilt atleast One milliOll tolls of cOtton wasLlrlderestlmafed Sollrce from XinJllll3greports that there was 2.18 m111io13 tonsof cotton lasf vear while the source fromSOCletv tells that there is 3.18 mllliontons of cottoN prodliced ihere in 2oo6

But one thing is cenaln th aI ChiElesccottoil yarn prodUCtlOn was increasedto 17.4 mlllion tons in 2oo6 frowl 6.6mllliOll toiis in 2ooo．a(chǎn) growth of 1o.8mlllion tons in the six vears wifh allallnUlll irtcrease of l.8 mlllio tOns Thecotton supply—deilland gap was becomlngblgger year by year To fill up that gap，ChIFla Inte Jaslfied its import Of cottonfrom 2oo 1 to 2oo6 to run after rapldgrowth of splnnlng.

China lmported 6o，OOO tOns of COtto11in 2oo1 alld 3.64 milliloll tOns 1ast year，an averaged growth rate of 158％in thepast years Agalnst thls fast。gfOWl“gimDOl-t．there comes a serious collcerllover 1ocal ratillers’interest As Chiiliahas a large agrichlti．1ral populatlon，theliiiprovelllent OfIhe farrmecrs’ljivlngstandards and thelf mterest are the baslsfor Chlna’s economic develoDment Therast growlng imports of large quantltycottons makcs che relevant departmentsworry that it may damage the mterestof cottoil growers TheEefnre the s11di“gdutv was in force to slOw dowll theCOttOil lmports tO make the ilnpon cottonprice eqtlal t。fhe domestlc cotto priceor sometlmes even hlgher thall thedomestlc price This results in a muchhigher cost in the acttlal coilslimpfionof cotton in the countrv than that ininternational market，conseque rltlyweakenlng the cornpetittvelrless of Chlnacotton textlle mdustry.

ChOngqing，a City OfModern Textile

If the clty of Cho11 gqing isregarded as a womb of clvllizatlon inSOUrhwestem regions in ChlFaese history，the fact ls th at there arc mally historlcalremallinS antient reljlcS alld cul curalherltages，some of whlch are a Jteadylisled m the woeld natural reserves andcaIliralherltage progiams by UNESCO，this is only OrlC slde onhe clty The cltyOf Chongqing does riot rest lelsurelywith its histor。lcal wealfh．it sparkles itsenthuslasm to create more fonunes 1n theprocess O rIhe nation’s industrializatlondrive_rhls is a new side ofthe city Justtake textlle indUStry as a mirror 1o showhow rast the Clty can runin an effontocatch up with the textll。glants I丌coastalareas in the east and south of Chlna.

Chongqing had a poor prodlietionof 5.o7 mlllion units Of c1othes in 2oo6．merely。qual to that of a mlddle-sizedgarment eompany in the east or soilthOfChina，taking up only 2.9％，3.4％and O.75％of the garment production in1ts brolhcr cltjcs(Beijing，Tianjin andShaNghai.)

Chongqmg is a gianf in lts teITItory，jarger than tho geographical size ofthe thtee cOgether，oufhumberlng thepopulatlon ln aNy of them，but a dwarfin textlle development To the delight ofthe Clty planners．the sltuation started tochange ror[he better.

As the knitting tCXt'1e indUStryshOWS，Chongqing’s knjtting garmentprodduction increased by 372.35％fromJall to Aug in 2oo7 as compared wlththe same penod of 1ast year to arriveat the best Of the top tens in garmentgrowth.

To respond to the rapld growth ofgarmellt indu st ry，the lnvestment inupstream productloil(spIn，illg andweaviDg)is on the run in line Withte。governmenf’s sIrategy to“exploreChina’s West”The relocation does notslmply move。peratlons，taking a ladder-like rollte from East to West．the newlnvestments are dlrected along a newroadmap of upgrading the textlIe industry，whlch ls very difierent from what Chlnaused to dO in the late 9o’s last century．calling for wagon 1oads Of Old spindlesdlsmantled in the easI tO move to thewest to COIltiIlue OperatiOIlS，a strategy“from bad tO worse\"

Now the clty has a dramatic face-uponly investment in the New technologyand efficlent DrodUCtlOn is wclcolnedand encouraged in the new“from east towest”ladder-Iike move.

WanzhoH，an outback COUIlty inChOilgqinghas come mto pubic aItentionfrom the world tcxtilemdustry，for it has a veryimportant investor fromShandong，Chin a’slmportant cottOll texfileprovlnce，to set up abrand new collon tcxtlle operationShandong RuyI Group．one of the mostlmportant textil。players in China，hasinvesIed 111 a mega project of 5oo，ooospIndlcs，out of the total capaclty，theproductlou liRe of 3o，ooo spindles thatrepresent the highest techno Jogy Ievelin compact spinnlng is the only one inSIIOh a seaIe ln China Half of the total5oo，ooo spjndles Wl’ll go to operation althe cud of thls year．to meet wlth thesequality yaliiS and rabrlcs，a prodIlctjonliIle of 1o mlIljion luxury shiits per yeararld another llne of yarn-dyed fabrlcof 2o mllIiion meters Per year are bothplanned tO cornplete the indU Strlalvalue chaln tO syneerlze the integratedlnnovatiON and competitlye strength.

Chongqing，COUpled with bOth oIdeullurc alld modem textile mdustry，hasbOth roles tO perform It is a Clty of oldfo1klore treasure，and it is also a cityof modern textile wealIh The textileindustry，which embraces eunure，lirestyle and technology in both arms，callchange the two-faceted city into onethemc tale：

To build Chongqing into a clfy offashion

the dream is even more likely tobe made fruc．a(chǎn)s ML BO Xilaj．MlIinSterof MlOiStry of Commerce m Chllla，hasbeen appOlllted by central govemment totake the No l pOSltlOil as Pany SecretaryGenera in Chongqng cicy Many peoplebelileve Mr BO has bCCll a good Mlnlsterln trade and Will be a good fashionleader．tOO He had been very successfulin brlnging Dailau cjty where he usedtO be Mayor mto the world fa shionspotljght，increaslng the cjty’s value thatnomoney COUld affordto buy.