The Tenth Five-Year Plan of the Textile Industry and its Development as follows:

1. Development Objectives

Growth rate: The average annual growth rate will be 6.5 percent; the industrial value added will increase from 267.8 billion yuan (US$32.26 billion) in 2000 to 430 billion yuan in 2005.

The total processing volume of textile fibers will rise from 12.1 million tons in 2000 to 14.25 million tons in 2005; the average fiber consumption per capita will go up from 6.6 to 7.4 kilograms.

Foreign exchange income from textiles and apparel exports will jump from US$52 billion in 2000 to US$70-75 billion in 2005.

The proportion between clothing, decorative and industrial textiles products will be readjusted from 67, 20 and 13 percent in 2000 to 64 percent, 21 percent and 15 percent in 2005 respectively.

Labor productivity will reach 35,000 yuan in 2005, a 40-percent increase over 2000.

The contribution rate of technological progress will reach over 50 percent in 2005.

Energy and cost efficiency: energy consumption per 10,000 yuan worth of output will fall 15 percent in 2005 against 2000.

Water conservation: the recycling rate of water in the textiles dyeing-printing industry will reach around 30 percent; water consumption of dyeing-printing per 100 meters of fabric will drop from 3.6 to three tons.

2. Highlights of textile development and adjustment

1). Technological and product structural adjustment

During the Tenth Five-Year-Plan period (2001-2005), the textiles industry will keep up with the international development trend of new technology and restructure the traditional industry by using advanced, new technologies to accelerate technological improvement and upgrade the industry.

Cotton textiles: The capacity of 10 million spindles together with the looms will be renovated to enable 60 percent of the spun-yarn machinery to reach the advanced 1990s level; the proportion of combed yarn, unknotting yarn and fine-count yarn and no-shuttled fabric will reach 30, 50 and 40 percent respectively.

Wool textiles: To realize electronic, serial and concatenating production for high speed and efficiency. To raise the general quality of wool fabric and develop high-count yarn and light and thin products. The proportion of high-class fabric will reach 70 percent; to further expand exports.

Linen-leave fiber textiles: Focus on developing technical equipment for biological de-gumming of ramie, carding spinning and tow-to-yarn process and finishing technology after dyeing and printing to solve the problem of drought evenness, color fastness and color brightness of fine-count yarn. To improve quality to ensure wearing comfort and to expand the utilization of linen-leave textiles in apparel and in household textile products.

Silk textiles: New types of composite fibers with silk as the main content will be developed; the serialization of raw materials with silk contents will be made and high-grade silk products will be stressed; a shrink-proof and crease-proof finishing level will be upgraded; blended, inter-woven and composite products using mulberry silk and other fibers will be promoted and copies of natural products using chemical fibers will be developed.

Knitted textiles: The use of new-type knitting machines will spread and the capability of product design and development will be improved; the development of the utilization of new types of raw materials and environmental protection fibers in knitted products will be a priority; health-care-based knitted products, knitted garments for the outdoor, high-grade knitted underwear and high-grade warp-knitted fabrics will be promoted and exports of knitted textiles products will be expanded.

Chemical fibers and chemical fiber raw materials: To develop new product varieties and increase quality. By 2005, the differentiation rate will reach 40 percent and the production capacity of enterprises with an annual output of 100,000 tons will account for about 60 percent of the total capacity of the chemical fiber industry.

A number of large chemical-fiber and chemical-fiber raw material bases will be set up. The connection of all up-stream and down-stream enterprises in the industrial chain will be better coordinated.

Textiles for industrial use: Focus on developing covering materials, planting-base materials, fabrics, medical and hygienic materials for health care, materials for industrial use, construction materials, environmental protection materials, packaging materials, framing materials and automobile-interior decoration materials.

Textiles machinery: Focus on the research and development of 40 kinds of textile machineries in the areas of chemical fibers, yarn spinning, weaving, knitting and dyeing and finishing; a break-through in the development of 36 key manufacturing technologies; electronics technology will be applied extensively to raise the level of tech-electronic integration.

Post-dyeing and print finishing: Focus on increasing the level of post-finishing technology for natural fibers, dye-finishing technology for chemical-fiber copies of natural fibers, dye-finishing technology for multi-fiber blends and composite fibers, biological ferment dye-finishing technology, clean-production technology, laser screen-making technology, no plate-making dye-finishing print technology; products with high added value and ecological and environmental protection products will be highlighted to increase the proportion of high-grade products to 60 percent and to meet demands for garment making and exports.

Apparel: Emphasize the development of brand apparel, children's apparel, garments for middle and old-aged people and special garments; research and development of ecological, health-care garments; development of garments suitable for rural consumption to adapt garment making to the multi-layered consumption demands of the domestic market, and expand exports.

2). Adjustment of the Organizational Structure
The adjustment will help form many large enterprises and enterprise groups, which will possess their own well-known brands, independent intellectual property rights and outstanding main-business and strong-core competence. By 2005, the number of enterprises with an output of over 100,000 tons in the chemical fiber industry will increase from seven to about 20. The rate of production concentration will reach 60 percent. The development of non-State-owned enterprises, private, individual and foreign-invested companies will be encouraged.

The development of small and medium-sized enterprises that can provide services for the textiles industry and society will also be encouraged. To motivate the development of the urban textile industry, labor-intensive industries, such as garment making, knitting and wool-knitting processing, will be promoted by relying on large-scale markets. The country will encourage the development of and provide support to small and medium-sized scientific and technological enterprises that can provide technology, design and information services to make them an important part of the technological progress of the textiles industry.

3). Adjustment of Regional Structure

The move will help make full use of the regional comparative advantages. China will encourage cross-regional, cross-industrial and cross-ownership-type unifications with eastern and western regions to achieve mutual development via advantage complements.

4). The acceleration of the adjustment of the State-owned economic pattern and the enhancement of the strategic reorganization of the State-owned enterprises.

5). The promotion of information construction: The country will increase the overall competitiveness of its industry through information construction and application of information technology; conditions will be made to give full play to the industrial advantages to help the textile industry realize a booming development.

Development review of the textile industry

In 2000, there were 18,900 textile enterprises, including State-owned enterprises and non-State-owned enterprises with a respective annual sales revenue of over 5 million yuan. Total assets were 977.3 billion yuan and the industrial added value was 267.8 billion yuan, accounting for 11.9, 8.3 and 11.3 percent of the figures from the nation's total large-scale enterprises.

The total number of employees in the industry was 13 million; total profit tax was 57.88 billion yuan; total volume of processed textile fibers, 12.1 million tons; fiber consumption per capita, 6.6 kilograms; yarn output, 6.575 million tons; chemical fiber output, 6.942 million tons; garments output, 16.5 billion pieces. The output of yarn, fabric, wool fabric, silk products, chemical fibers and garments all ranked number one in the world, which made China the largest textile-garment-producing nation.

China's textile apparel exports amounted to US$52.08 billion in 2000, accounting for 20.9 percent of China's total exports and about 13 percent of the total volume of the world's textiles apparel trade. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1995-2000), China's accumulative textile apparel exports numbered US$221.5 billion; its net foreign-exchange income was US$170 billion, which made the textile industry the major industry of foreign-exchange earnings.

In 2000 State-owned enterprise and State-owned holdings company assets were 452.2 billion yuan, accounting for 46.3 percent of total industry assets. But the industrial-increased value of all State-owned enterprises only accounted for 29.8 percent of the entire textile industry; profits only accounted for 23.1 percent of the industry. The rate of State-owned enterprises that made a loss was 31 percent -- 10 percent more than the industry average.

During the Ninth Five Year Plan period, the textile industry had basically achieved its main goals through structural adjustment, which was undertaken with initial success.

The task of reversing the difficult situation of the State-owned enterprises was basically complete. In 1997, the Central Economic Working Conference proposed three major tasks to decrease spindles, downsize enterprises and turn losses into profits for the textiles industry. By the end of 2000, the accumulative cut of cotton-spinning capacity was 9.4 million spindles, the decrease of wool-spinning capacity was 280,000 spindles and the decreased silk-reeling capacity was one million thread ends.

Reducing total capacity, the textile industry combined the reduction of spindles, structural adjustment and re-organization of assets. It made full use of the policies regarding company mergers and bankruptcy and the policy regarding debt-into-shares to implement the strategic adjustment of the textile industry.

The level of processing technology and equipment has been increased remarkably. During the Ninth Five Year Plan period, through technological innovation and the implementation of basic construction projects, the production capacity of chemical fibers jumped over three million tons and the differentiation rate was also greatly boosted.

Having reformed the decreasing spindles in the cotton-spinning industry, about 30 percent of yarn-spinning machinery has reached the advanced 1990s level. The wool-spinning industry has adopted wool dye-finishing serial machinery and installed quality inspections and a monitoring control system and developed high-count and super-thin wool textiles products. The textiles-machinery industry has made some breakthroughs in the area of tech-electronic unification in textiles machinery by importing technology, and making joint investments and cooperative efforts.

There has been great improvement in product variety and quality. The proportion of chemical fibers in textile-fiber processing grew from 45 percent in 1995 to over 60 percent in 2000; the proportion of differentiated fibers in total textile fibers reached 25 percent, up 10 percent in five years. Proportions of knotless yarn and no-shuttle fabric was boosted from 18 and 15 percent in 1995 to 40 and 24 percent in 2000 respectively.

The level of finishing after dyeing and printing has also been improved. The proportion of middle- and high-class fabrics has been raised. The exports proportion of end products, such as garments, has been greatly increased. Garment exports have accounted for 70 percent of total textile exports -- a 5-percent hike over 1995. The proportion of textile products for clothing, decoration and industrial use has reached 67, 20 and 13 percent.

There has been a remarkable success in the overall adjustment of the major cities of textiles. The cotton-spinning capacity of State-owned enterprises has shrunk to the current 60 percent from 70 percent before the reduction in spindles. In some major cities, many enterprise groups and key export enterprises with international competitiveness have been established to form new, overall advantages. A total 159 enterprises have achieved a foreign-exchange income of over US$30 million from exports, and over 80 companies were listed on the stock market.

Rapid development of the non-State-owned economy: In terms of ownership structure, the pattern of co-existence of State-owned, collectively owned, joint ventures (JV) and private ownerships has been formed. State-owned enterprises account for 30 percent; collective enterprises, 26.5 percent; JV enterprises, 28.7 percent; and enterprises of other types of ownership account for 14.8 percent by value of output.

Apparent improvements in the quality of economic operations: Comparing 2000 with 1995, the total value in assets of the whole industry jumped from 830.1 billion yuan to 977.3 billion yuan -- an annual increase of almost 30 billion yuan; the asset liabilities rate decreased from 73.3 percent to 66 percent; total profit value increased from 3.27 billion yuan to 29.01 billion yuan; the rate of assets profit tax climbed from 4.1 to 5.5 percent; the proportion of enterprises running at a loss fell from 32.1 to 20.6 percent; labor productivity increased from 14,000 yuan to 25,000 yuan -- up 78 percent.

There still exist problems that should not be ignored in the development of the textile industry. Such issues are mainly reflected in the following areas: a) weak capability of technological innovation; b) low level of technological equipment and low productivity; c) irrational organizational structure d) the incompatibility of cotton circulation and export systems with the requirements of market economy; e) an immature regional complementary pattern.

In summary of the above analysis, the main characteristic of the textile industry as China's main industry in earning foreign-exchange income from exports will not change and will continue to play an important role in the nation's economy. China has a domestic market of nearly 1.3 billion people, occupying a market share of about 13 percent in the international textile apparel market. A complete industrial processing system has been formed with rich raw materials resources and sufficient labor resources. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the comparative advantages of the textile industry for competition still exist; there is still room for further development.

In 2002, total assets of the textile industry reached 667.45 billion yuan -- up 10.05 percent over the previous year. The sales revenue amounted to 599.164 billion yuan -- up 16.03 percent over the previous year. Total profits numbered 18.652 billion yuan -- up 30.87 percent over the previous year. The number of employees totaled 4.7609 million -- up 1.04 percent over the previous year.

In 2002, the output volume of gauze, fabric, cotton cloth, blending cloth, chemical fiber cloth and silk reached 8.0175 million tons respectively -- up 15.8 percent, 22.651 billion meters (up 11.2 percent), 11.622 billion meters ( up 12 percent), 5.805 billion meters (up 3.9 percent), 5.223 billion meters (up 18.3 percent) and 833.2895 million tons (up 12.3 percent) from the previous year.

During January-May 2003, total assets of the textile industry reached 681.503 billion yuan -- up 16.46 percent over the same period of the previous year. Sales revenue totaled 260.361 billion yuan -- up 23.01 percent over the same period of the previous year. Total profits reached 7.164 billion yuan -- up 45.37 percent over the same period of the previous year. The number of the employees reached 4.8379 million -- up 4.99 percent over the same period of the previous year.

During January-May 2003, the output volume of gauze, fabric, cotton cloth, blending cloth, chemical fiber cloth and silk reached 3.6055 million tons respectively -- up 19.3 percent over the same period of the previous year; 9.260 billion meters (up 8.8 percent), 4.810 billion meters (up 9.4 percent), 2.258 billion meters (up 1.3 percent), 2.291 billion meters (up 16.3 percent) and 377.0283 million tons (up 12.5 percent) from the same period last year.