(Economic Observation) China's "Shoe City" Forces Footwear Industry Transformation

　　China News Service, Putian, March 10 (Reporter Lin Chunyin) "Last year, the country produced 13.5 billion pairs of shoes, of which 9.54 billion pairs were exported, 3.56 billion pairs were sold domestically, and 4.5 billion pairs of footwear were consumed nationwide. Foreign imports." Li Jianhui, the mayor of Putian City, Fujian Province, cited this set of statistics in a recent interview and pointed out that the footwear industry is still mainly export OEM and needs to be transformed and upgraded to upgrade the modernization of the industrial chain.

　　Putian is a well-known "shoe city" in China, with a well-developed shoe-making industry and world-leading shoe-making technology.

At present, the footwear industry is Putian’s pillar industry and the leading industry. There are more than 4,200 footwear companies in the city, with more than 500,000 employees, an output value exceeding 100 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), and an output of 1.26 billion pairs, accounting for the country’s total output. 9.3%.

　　However, Li Jianhui also said frankly that although Putian is a world-renowned sports shoe manufacturing base, it has a history of deep cultivation and meticulous work, a spirit of craftsmanship and a relatively complete industrial chain, but it is at the bottom of the value chain. What it takes is the "small profit" of OEM.

　　"It is often that we produce world-brand shoes at low prices, but in turn, we buy them abroad at high prices." Li Jianhui believes that the domestic consumption potential has not yet been fully released, and the high-end consumer market share is not high. .

　　How can the shoe industry achieve a gorgeous turn, unblock the internal circulation chain, and upgrade the modernization of the industrial chain?

In Li Jianhui's view, the focus should be on brand building.

　　"There is manufacturing but no brand, no industry but no culture. This is the'pain' of traditional industries." Li Jianhui said, in order to solve this problem, Putian encourages shoe companies and brand trademarks, super IP, planning consultation, and supply Chain finance and other cooperation, apply new models, new business formats, and implement alliances to create brands; encourage leading footwear companies to cooperate with other fields such as electronic information, clothing production, e-commerce teams, and conduct cross-border brand creation.

　　The number of small and scattered enterprises, the fragile supply chain and the lack of a voice, and the lack of rapid market response capabilities are the "pain" that has long plagued the breakthrough of traditional industrial upgrades.

To this end, Putian has made efforts to build a platform, through the establishment of an industrial Internet platform, gather elements, integrate resources, and build an ecology.

　　In terms of centralized procurement, Putian has established a Zhongxielian supply chain service platform to open up centralized procurement, centralized sales channels, and coordinate information on supporting orders, production, logistics and finance, and provide shoe companies with centralized procurement and matching transaction services.

Li Jianhui revealed that the platform has settled on more than 5,000 enterprises, with a cumulative transaction volume of more than 11 billion yuan, achieving a 5% cost reduction, a 15% increase in order delivery rate, and a five-day reduction in delivery days.

　　Technology empowerment is the third aspect of the transformation of Putian shoe industry.

Putian has made full efforts in key materials, R&D and design, carried out key core technologies to "reveal the list", and research and develop high-end new materials such as shoe soles and fabrics. At the end of 2019, it was approved as a national new functional material industry cluster; set up a shoe data center to establish footwear. The database of model and shoe model promotes the research and development of more precise and personalized products, which greatly improves the market fit of products.

　　Putian also issued policies to encourage enterprises to increase R&D investment, and introduced a number of innovative carriers such as the New Engineering Industry Institute, BIT Southeast Information Technology Research Institute, CLP Research Institute, Heima Putian Branch, Putian Leadership Business School, etc., to establish Huafeng Industry The college provides talent support for scientific and technological innovation in the footwear industry by unblocking the "introduction, education and use" of talents.

　　With strong policy support, Putian took the lead in introducing the "white list" system for the footwear industry in Fujian Province, and promptly introduced measures to stabilize footwear enterprises and promote upgrades. Last year, despite the impact of the epidemic, orders dropped by 30%, and the footwear industry still maintained steady growth.

Putian introduced measures to accelerate the high-quality development of the footwear industry this year, and the footwear industry increased by 18% in the first two months.

　　Putian also innovated the "social responsibility + finance" model, developed an inclusive financial information service platform, realized automatic approval of financial institutions, instant loans, and opened up financing blockages for shoe companies; established a footwear industry fund with a total scale of 3 billion yuan. Local innovative enterprises and project investments that improve the industrial foundation and industrial chain level have now completed the first phase of investment of 100 million yuan.

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