After 40 years of development, the city now boasts more than 7,000 textile and clothing companies, shipping more than 1.85 billion pieces of products overseas a year.

Citing a rapid increase in the number of local nylon material companies, Wen Zhanbin, Party chief of Shantou, said the local textile and clothing sector has entered a new phase of development, focusing on green and smart technologies.

The city had only one enterprise producing nylon materials in 2022, with a production capacity of only 17,000 metric tons. Local production of nylon materials will be expanded to 400,000 tons over the next two years, with the expectation of four to five such new companies to be established.

"Expansion of the production of nylon materials fully demonstrates the confidence among local textile and clothing businesses, with more funds being invested in the industry," said Wen.

After completion of the project, it will become one of the largest textile parks in China and a major trade center for global textile production and sales, helping Shantou create a textile industry cluster with a complete industrial chain and a large professional international market, Wen added.

"Construction of the textile center will help effectively solve bottleneck problems such as a lack of intensive industrial cluster resources and a disconnect between sales and production," said Wen.

Textile and clothing enterprises in Shantou have long been dispersed in various townships of Gurao, Waisha, Xiashan, Shenyang and Chendian, according to the local textile and clothing industrial association.

Shantou-based textile and clothing companies had to open display and trade facilities in various locations nationwide, as the city has not built a professional centralized commercial market for years, making it unable to meet the needs of one-stop trading or properly connect production and sales, the association said.

Wen said a growing number of domestic textile and clothing enterprises have had an enthusiastic response to the projects, with pre-purchase rates for the first batch of factory buildings exceeding 95 percent and booking rates of the first batch of fabric stores reaching more than 50 percent within three days.

"Businesses from outside Shantou are very optimistic about the development prospects of the textile and clothing industry. They also believe in the likelihood of a professional market being built here," said Wen.

China's textile and clothing industry clusters are mostly spread along eastern and southern coastal areas, including Changle district of Fuzhou in Fujian province, Yiwu in Zhejiang province, and Shantou, Foshan, Dongguan and Guangzhou in Guangdong.

To facilitate business expansion, Shantou authorities have organized international textile and clothing exhibitions for two consecutive years, along with the establishment of an industry association and construction of 108 textile-related projects worth 32 billion yuan last year.

"We will also launch a series of international events to promote the textile and clothing industry, aiming to boost overseas market presence," said Wen.

Construction of an international exhibition center, the largest of its kind in eastern Guangdong, has begun in Shantou, with a planned area of 154,000 square meters and an investment of 1.91 billion yuan.

A 45,000-sq-m textile headquarters building will also be built in Shantou, aiming to provide services for technology and design R&D as well as smart manufacturing.

Introduction of high-quality projects and strengthened cooperation with research and technology institutes alongside higher educational organizations will also be major tasks associated with expanding the local textile and clothing industry, Wen said.

Despite the relatively sluggish situation of the textile and clothing industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past three years, the number of industrial enterprises above a designated size for textiles and clothing in Shantou increased to 791 in the first five months of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent.

The January-May output value of such companies also increased 9.1 percent to 53.4 billion yuan, according to local government sources.

As one of the pillar industries of the country, China's textile industry has developed the most complete industrial system in the world, said Xia Lingmin, secretary-general of the China National Textile and Apparel Council — the national federation of all textile-related industries.

China's fiber processing volume exceeded 60 million tons in 2022, accounting for over half of the world's total, with chemical fiber production surpassing over 70 percent of the global volume, said the federation.

The country's export value of textiles and clothing reached $340.95 billion in 2022, making up more than one-third of the global total, it added.

Citing Shantou's leading position in development of the textile industry, Xia said investment in technologies and innovation, brand enhancement and green development should be priorities in the future.

"Only through improved quality and digital transformation can the entire textile industry in Shantou maintain its competitive advantages," said Xia.

Construction of the international textile and clothing center, along with the establishment of a local textile association and organization of an international textile and clothing exhibition, will help facilitate high-quality development of the country's textile sector, Xia added.