A hundred billion yuan ecological leather clothing industry built in Xinji, Hebei
Xinji’s leather industry has a long history. It originated in the Shang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. A folk saying that "Bigan makes leather in Guangchuan couty and buys light fur in Huilong town" describes that Xinji, which was the ancient Huilong town, was known for the leather trade in the Yin and Shang dynasties. More than 300 years ago, Xinji, described as "trading ports by two lines, which are exchanged between the north and the south, as far as thousands of miles away", recording the prosperous scene of fur trade in Xinji county.
Since the 1980s, Xinji has achieved vigorous development by building parks, promoting aggregation, expanding markets and upgrading grades. It has built the first specialized leather market in China, the largest leather clothing production base in China, and the largest sheepskin garment leather production base in the world. Xinji is known as the capital of leather and leather clothing in China. Its leather industry has formed a relatively complete industrial chain of garment, leather, shoe making and leather goods, which has led to the prosperity and development of nearly ten industries, such as leather machinery, leather chemical industry, fur collar processing and leather accessories. It has built a development pattern in which garment and leather manufacturing keep pace with each other and promote each other, with Xinji International Leather City as the driving force.
There are 103 enterprises above designated size, 89 small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises, 6 high-tech enterprises, 3 provincial public service platforms, 1 academician workstation, 9 green factories, 7 LWG gold medal certification enterprises in international leather industry, 7 Chinese well-known trademarks and 66 well-known brands.
In recent years, the Xinji government has vigorously supported the revitalization of leather characteristic industry, having successively formulated "leather clothing industry development plan (2019-2022)" and "leather clothing industry cluster industrial chain development plan", and issued a series of policies and measures to promote the revitalization of characteristic industries.
In terms of brand building, in October 2019, Xinji invested 10 million yuan, implemented the three-year campaign of "Xinji, capital of leather", and formulated the "leather industry’s advertising strategy and implementation plan". The local government organizes enterprises to participate in well-known exhibitions at home and abroad in the form of "Xinji Exhibition Group" every year to enhance the popularity and influence of Xinji leather.
In terms of scientific and technological innovation, in September 2019, Xinji has invested 3 million yuan to establish the industrial design innovation center, built the technological innovation strategic alliance of leather industry in Hebei Province, and established an innovation research and development platform, making efforts to solve the key common technical problems of the industry and rescue the leather industry out of the predicament.
In terms of supporting policies, Xinji has successively issued the “notice on policies and measures to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship”, “opinions on supporting private economy to promote high-quality development”, and “science and technology innovation leap forward plan (2019-2025)”, which have solved the problems and difficulties for enterprises in reducing enterprise taxes and fees and reducing enterprise costs. “Twenty measures to support healthy development of enterprises” was formulated during the COVID-19 epidemic, having promoted the resumption of production of leather enterprises.
At present, Xinji city has been making joint efforts in three aspects. Firstly, Xinji is concentrating more efforts to develop a regional leather brand, creating a characteristic regional brand of "fashionable leather capital and charming Xinji" by brand advertising and publicity on CCTV and sales distribution center. At the same time, to hold a variety of fashion design competitions and get in touch with well-known clothing brands to help enterprises develop and upgrade their brands. Secondly, relying on the strategic alliance of technological innovation of leather industry, Xinji should work harder to promote the replacement of chrome tanning agents in leather making process, so as to realize green production of products. Thirdly, efforts should be made to integrate online and offline development. The government is building a livestreaming base and working with domestic well-known online celebrities and operation agencies to promote sales and expand the popularity and influence of characteristic industries.
Xinji has been committed to extending the leather industry chain and striving to create a hundred billion yuan characteristic cluster of ecological leather clothing industry.
