Strategic Analysis On Raising The International Competitiveness Of China's Textiles And Clothing

With the termination of the ATC agreement on January 1st, 2005, trade in textiles and clothing will be fully integrated into the multilateral trading system of WTO. New international division and industry shift will take place in the world textile and clothing trade, and China will confront with even fiercer international competition and more intensified trade frictions. With the largest population in the world, the textile and clothing industry is of great importance to China. The entry of WTO enables China's textile and clothing industry to get rid of unequal international treatment, but at the same time it poses new challenges to China's industrial development.Although China has become the world largest fabrics manufacturer and exporter, competing in lower price level, China's textile and clothing industry has not stood firm in the international market. Compared with other developing countries engaged in fabrics and clothing export, our comparative advantage based on workforce and price is fading away; Compared with industrialized countries, our textiles and clothing are still in inferior position in technological innovation, marketing management, brand building, etc. In the face of the new and more complicated international economic environment, China's textile and clothing industry must seize the opportunity; both the government and enterprises must make all the efforts to take strategic measures to build up the international competitiveness.Taking the strategic analysis on raising the international competitiveness of China's textile and clothing as the subject, this thesis is composed of five parts:The thesis begins with chapter one by briefly stating the importance of the textile and clothing industry to the world economies and giving a brief review of the world trade development in textiles and clothing.Chapter two gives a bird's-view of the current situation of China's textile and clothing trade. It focuses on the year 2003 to give a summary of the features and problems of China's textile and clothing trade and look into the trade situation in 2004 to predict the future development.The opportunities and challenges brought about by China's entry to WTO are presented in chapter three to further analyze the international trade environment faced by China's textile and clothing industry.Applying Prahalad and Hamel's theory of core competence, chapter four analyzes the world competitiveness of China's textiles and clothing in comparisons with some of the world competitive countries.Chapter five is the most important part of the thesis. It proposes several strategies to be taken by both the government and enterprises, with the policies taken by the government focusing on providing a favorable trade condition for the textile and clothing, and those taken by the enterprises aiming to cultivate and improve their core competence to get ready for the world severe competition.