"Forbes": "Made In China" Clothes Will Not Become History.

The October 11th issue of the "Forbes" biweekly website, the original question: the "made in China" label on clothing has become the past? China's story as a world factory has become an old story. Higher wages, stronger currencies and Beijing's desire to make China a highly automated high-tech society are all going to be Garment manufacturer To Vietnam and Bangladesh.

China's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) last year was 16 times that of 1980. Since the 70s of last century, China has begun to produce labor-intensive products sold all over the world and continuously improve its market share. In 2006, the proportion of trade in China's GDP reached 64.8%, then steadily declined and dropped to 41.5% last year. In addition to the impact of the financial crisis, the doubling of Chinese clothing workers' wages is also one of the reasons for this decline. In contrast, wages for garment workers in Bangladesh remained stable.

The productivity and skill level of China's labor force has been increasing. But the clothing manufacturing industry is a low skilled labor intensive type, which has been ignored by the Chinese government. The productivity and automation level of Chinese factories means that China is gradually shifting its production priorities from clothing to electronic products, which requires a specific knowledge of the workforce and a stable and reliable energy supply. The proportion of China's high-tech exports increased from 6.4% in 1992 to 27% in 2013.

So, the "made in China" label on your shirt is in the past? In the view of CEIC, it depends on Bangladesh and others. clothing Whether the "novice" of the industry can develop labor and factories into reliable partners of western enterprises. First, data show that Bangladesh's labour productivity is much lower than that of China. In addition, political instability, unreliable energy facilities and inadequate logistics infrastructure are also troubling Bangladesh and other competitors.

China has undergone decades of economic reform, and now has advanced infrastructure including railways and power grids. When garment manufacturers are looking elsewhere for cheaper sources of procurement, China will not lose or idle these infrastructures. Can other countries take the place of China? clothing The dominant position of manufacturing industry is still a matter to be observed as long as Beijing maintains the current political stability situation and continues to raise the level of national education.