by Dong Zheng

The 2nd China （Quanzhou） Maritime Silk Road Expo and the 19th Straits Textile Clothing Fair （hereinafter referred to as the Two Fairs） were held from April 18th - 20th， 2016 in Shishi， a famous city for casual wear in Fujian Province. The Two Fairs were jointly sponsored by China Chamber of International Commerce， China National Textile and Apparel Council， China National Garment Association， China Fashion Association， Economic and Information Technology Commission of Fujian Province， Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce， Taiwan Affairs Office of Fujian， and Taiwan Textile Federation， while undertaken by the Exhibition Department of China Chamber of International Commerce， CCPIT Fujian Province， and Peoples Government of Quanzhou City. In addition， Peoples Government of Shishi City is in charge of the specific implementations.

Themed on “New Silk Road， New Cooperation， and New Integration” as well as “Cross-Straits， Leisure， and Fashion”， the Two Fairs gave full play to the role of the Expos， further highlighting the importance of Quanzhou as a starting point of “Maritime Silk Road” to promote the construction of Fujian as “the core area of Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century” and Quanzhou as “a leading area and strategic-pivot city of Maritime Silk Road in the 21st century”， thus improving the external influence of Shishi， Quanzhou， and even Fujian for a win-win integration of development.

The ever maximum in scale and quality

As a national and international event， “driving cross-strait industry connection and promoting economic and trade exchanges at home and abroad” as the main purpose， “gathering in the famous garment city for co-development of the cross-strait markets” & “Taiwan and mainland， professional， leisure， and fashion” as the concept， and “advancing the development of textile and garment industry in Shishi and even in Fujian Province” as the target， Straits Textile Clothing Fair has witnessed constant improvement in the exhibition quality and scale， presenting new looks and contents in each session. This year the Two Fairs showcased the ever maximum in scale and quality for the abundant contents and highlighted merits.

The main exhibition hall， covering an area of 45，000 square meters， was located in spontaneously opened Shishi International Textile City， including Maritime Silk Road Boutique Hall， Taiwan Hall， Textile City Trading Hall， “2016/17 Trends Zone & Maritime Silk Road Cooperation Corridor”， “Designers Works， Information and Colleges Zone” and “Technological and Innovative Products Zone”.

While China （Quanzhou） Maritime Silk Road Expo this year presented such zones as Maritime Silk Road Boutique Hall， British Hall， Italian Hall， Slovakia Hall， and Quanzhou Trademark Museum， highlighting more international elements and attracting 356 exhibitors from 40 overseas countries and regions， with 705 stands covering an area of 13，600 sqm.

The British Hall was a highlight of the fair， for most of its exhibits were British royal brands such as the handbag brand LAUNER， accessory brand AZUNI， and kidswear brand David Charles， which also made their debut in Fujian. In the Italian Hall， the exhibits were mostly the premium brands from Italian independent designers shoes， clothing， wallets， and handbags. However， Slovakia built an image hall of 100 square meters to show the countrys main brands of featured products.

It is worth mentioning that the organizers specially set up a Quanzhou Trademark Museum to display， in a unified layout， 146 Chinese wellknown trademarks and more than 1，000 ones in Fujian， in order to further expand the influence of enterprises， products， and brands in Quanzhou city.

On the opening day， Wang Tiankai， President of China National Textile and Apparel Council， accompanied by other personnel， visited the China Fabric Sample Warehouse， British Museum， Italian Hall， Slovakia Hall， Maritime Silk Road Boutique Zone， Taiwan Hall， Quanzhou Trademark Museum， and Quanzhou Virtual Industrial Park.

Integration and promotion on platform economics

The main exhibition hall of Straits Textile Clothing Fair moved to Shishi International Textile City this year， which， covering an area of 500 mu， is the largest professional market-piece construction. It started business also on the opening day of Straits Textile Clothing Fair， aiming to be a modern and professional market platform focusing on textile wholesale and business office while involving exhibitions， information， e-commerce， research& design， inspection， finance & insurance， international settlement and other integrated business support services.

A series of important public service platforms have been settled in Shishi International Textile City， including China Fabric Sample Warehouse Shishi branch， Shishi laboratory of CNTAC Testing Center， and Shishi Park of Quanzhou Virtual Industrial Park. The adjacent Shishi Clothing Wholesale City， one of Asias largest clothing wholesale market， has continued efficient operation for 11 years， enjoying the annual turnover of more than 30 billion yuan. In the future， the area will gradually see gathering of people， goods，capital， and information， followed by the upgrading of services， tourism， logistics， parking and other functions. Shishi International Textile City and Shishi Clothing Wholesale City will continue to become bigger and stronger， forming a “Wealth Business Circle” with an annual turnover of over 100 billion yuan.

Innovation-driven intelligent manufacturing

In addition to the exhibits of various foreign and domestic advanced sewing equipment as in the previous years， the fair this year introduced CNC and intelligent equipment exhibition to showcase hundreds of domestic and foreign advanced CNC and intelligent devices， including CNC zipper head multifunctional assembly machine， energy-saving& cloud-computing intelligent printing machines， intelligent fabric inspection machine and packaging machine， industrial robots， spider hands， swing hands， automatic logistics vehicles， Robot Palletizer， the template device， upper device， digital textile machinery， cold dyeing technology， which demonstrate the development pace and achievements of intelligent equipment in China.

Being innovation-driven and intelligent is an inevitable trend of the future manufacturing industry. “CNC generation” mechanical products innovative demonstration project has been started to implement in Quanzhou， Fujian Province last year. The promotion and application of intelligent equipment and technology are of great significance in improving the production efficiency of textile， shoes， and garment enterprises， enhancing product accuracy， and reducing labor costs.

The co-exhibition of China （Quanzhou） Maritime Silk Road Expo and Straits Textile Clothing Fair will further play its role as a platform to introduce more excellent international brands into China and develop national or regional cooperation of quality products as well as branded products in terms of international trading， creative design， marketing， etc.， while carrying out the national independent brand strategy and accelerating the Chinese independent brands to “go global”.

The Two Fairs are an important activity in the economic development of Quanzhou， also an important carrier to promote the strategy of“High Quality Shishi， Powerful Industry City”. The success of the Two Fairs will help Quanzhou make full use of industrial advantages， strengthen economic and trade cooperation with areas along the Maritime Silk Road， drive the real economy and the industrial transformation and upgrading， enhance visibility and influence of Quanzhou at home and abroad， and promote Shishi， Quanzhou， and Fujian to become an important window to fully display the results of the Maritime Silk Road construction.