First of all, in industries with obvious economic scale, Chinese enterprises are small in scale. Taking the polyester industry as an example, the average production capacity of factories in Western Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea is 3.5 times, 12 times, 13 times and 30 times that of China, respectively. Due to the small average scale of factories, uneven technical equipment, low degree of continuity and automation, and low management level, China's labor productivity lags far behind that of advanced countries (regions). The per capita output of chemical fiber in advanced countries (regions) is about 5- 10 times that of China.
Secondly, the ability of technology and product development is weak. The Administration Department of the Institute of Chemical Engineering of Taiwan Province Institute of Technology invited 15 experts and scholars to compare and analyze the polyester fiber and nylon fiber in Taiwan Province Province with other major chemical fiber producing countries in the world, and scored the R&D capability of Chinese mainland chemical fiber industry as 2.4; Score (out of 5), the highest score is 4.6 in Japan, 4.5 in Taiwan Province Province, 4.3 in South Korea and the United States, and 2.8 in Thailand and Indonesia. They think that the level of research and development in mainland China is the lowest.
Third, there is a big gap between brands and market competition. In the fierce market competition, developed countries have been controlling the high value-added areas of textile and garment trade, adjusting their textile and garment industries by transferring to overseas production bases, franchising production and sales, and entrusting processing trade, controlling the final sales network of textile and garment, and benefiting from the cheap labor of textile and garment industries in developing countries to varying degrees. Judging from the current export structure of China, about 50% of the final products are exported by processing trade. In general trade, nearly 60% are bulk conventional varieties such as shirts, trousers and pajamas, and there are few China brands, especially fashion, and almost no foreign registered trademarks. Export clothing depends entirely on the importer's market network and brand, and there is no independent marketing network.
Relying on comparative advantage to expand textile trade has brought quantitative growth effect, foreign exchange earning effect and employment effect, but it also inevitably brings disadvantages such as low level of participation in international division of labor, low export industrial structure, backward technology, low product quality and poor enterprise efficiency. Comparative cost theory and factor endowment theory are static analysis, which do not involve dynamic factors such as technological progress, development and change of international division of labor, competition, human capital and development trend of international trade. Therefore, it is obvious that the development of China's textile industry can no longer be confined to the advantages of labor resources, but should explore a new strategy that not only utilizes our comparative advantages, but also adapts to the world textile development trend.
2 The development of textile industry should be guided by competitive advantage.
As mentioned above, China's textile industry has certain comparative advantages, but it lacks obvious competitive advantages. Modern competition theory holds that the international competitiveness of any national industry is determined by two factors: comparative advantage and competitive advantage. The traditional concept of comparative advantage emphasizes the comparative cost and resource endowment of each country. Comparative advantage ultimately boils down to price competition, and competitive advantage emphasizes non-price competition and innovation competition. The realization of comparative advantage is inseparable from competitive advantage, which is increasingly dominant in international competition. Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, has published Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and National Competitive Advantage successively, put forward the famous theory of competitive advantage, developed the traditional theory of comparative advantage, and achieved a leap from comparative advantage to competitive advantage.
Porter believes that the fundamental reason why a country can prosper is that it has a competitive advantage in the international market. This competitive advantage comes from the competitive advantage of its leading industry, and the competitive advantage of leading industry comes from the fact that enterprises have improved production efficiency because of innovative mechanisms. It can be seen that the competitive advantage of a country referred to by Porter is also the competitive advantage of enterprises and industries, that is, the competitive advantage of the level of productivity development, which includes the following four basic elements: production factors (including basic factors and promotion factors); Demand factors (including domestic demand structure, scale, growth rate, senior buyer pressure, demand internationalization); Related and supporting industries, that is, domestic industries that provide input for leading industries (including upstream supply industries and other related industries); The strategic structure and competition of enterprises (including the formation, organization and management, fierce competition, innovation and entrepreneurial ability of enterprises, etc.). In addition to the above four basic factors, opportunities and the role of the government can not be ignored, which have an important impact on the formation of the overall competitiveness of the country. In a word, Porter believes that these factors influence and reinforce each other, and * * * together form a dynamic competitive environment to stimulate innovation, thus producing some star industries that are highly competitive in the international market.
In order to improve the international competitiveness of China's textile products and promote the long-term sustained and rapid development of textile industry, the theory of competitive advantage should be taken as the strategic orientation of textile development industry. As an industry with comparative advantages in China, whether the textile industry can become an export industry with sustainable development potential depends on its higher international competitiveness than its competitors, that is, competitive advantage. However, in the case of homogeneous products, comparative advantage reflects relative price advantage, competitive advantage reflects absolute price advantage, and comparative advantage and competitive advantage may be separated. With the development of economy and the increase of income in China, the labor cost will increase, especially after China's entry into WTO. If we don't cultivate competitive consciousness, mention high-tech content, speed up the upgrading of textile products and enhance competitiveness, the original competitive advantage will be reduced or even become a competitive disadvantage, and the original comparative advantage industries will not necessarily become competitive advantages. Generally speaking, China textile industry is in a period when its comparative advantage is still playing a role but weakening, and its competitive advantage is developing but not yet fully formed. China should not give up its comparative advantage, but also conform to the trend of international division of labor, international competition and market demand, and build the competitive advantage of textile industry. Therefore, we should actively explore ways to build competitive advantage on the basis of comparative advantage.
In a word, the development of textile industry in China should be guided by the theory of competitive advantage, and actively cultivate its international competitiveness, so as to promote the development strategy of textile industry to change from comparative advantage to competitive advantage, and strive to make the competitive advantage of textile industry develop to a higher stage.