Southeast Henan Economic Belt: From Scratch To Strong

Looking to the southeast corner of the Central Plains, from the old Yellow River to the bank of the Huaihe River, Shangqiu, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Xinyang in southeast Henan are arranged in a circular pattern, emerging a light industry economic belt in the central region. For thousands of years, this is the traditional agricultural area of "Central Plains granary". In recent years, with the industrial transfer in coastal areas and the strong momentum of returning home to start businesses, a large number of light industry enterprises have landed in southeast Henan, accelerating the rise of the industrial belt.

At present, in southeast Henan, Huaibin textile, Pingyu outdoor, Xihua electronics, Suixian shoemaking... light industry clusters with different characteristics have sprung up, playing an increasingly important role in the economic pattern of Henan and even the whole country. The economic volume of the four cities in southeast Henan has grown from 100 billion in 2010 to more than 300 billion in 2022, forming an economic belt with a total economic scale of more than 1.3 trillion yuan, which epitomizes the rise of central China and the undertaking of industrial transfer in the east.

In Huaibin County, Xinyang City, Henan Province, the "China's emerging textile industry base county", workers of Xintao Textile Technology Co., Ltd. are busy in the workshop. Photographed by reporter Zhang Haoran

　　 Create something out of nothing: traditional agricultural areas usher in the tide of industrial transfer

Pingyu County of Zhumadian City is located in the hinterland of the Huang Huai Plain, at the junction of two provinces and three cities. It is a traditional agricultural county, and was once a national poverty county. There are no resources on the ground, no mineral deposits underground, low level of openness, and small industrial scale. How to break a new path of economic development has troubled more than 1.1 million people in Pingyu.

In 2015, Liu Kai, who returned home to start his own business, let Pingyu County seize the opportunity to undertake the industrial transfer in the Yangtze River Delta. Liu Kai, who is in his early 40s, has worked for many years in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, and has been engaged in the outdoor leisure products industry. He started as a production line worker and eventually established a processing enterprise in Deqing, Zhejiang.

"With the increase of factory rent in the Yangtze River Delta, the increase of labor costs and the thinning of profits put pressure on enterprises." Liu Kai, chairman of Henan Zhongxin Furniture Co., Ltd., said that at that time, enterprises employed about 160 people in Zhejiang, and more than 60% of them came from Henan, Shandong, Anhui and other labor export provinces. Liu Kai, a native of Zhumadian, focused on the rich labor resources and low land prices in the central region and returned to his hometown to start his own business in 2015.

At the beginning of his return to his hometown, Liu Kai's factory was not large, but it led to the employment of many left behind people. "To attract investment, the county also wants to attract large projects, but they are poor and have no industrial foundation. Who will come?" Huo Xinli, director of the outdoor industry office of Pingyu County, said that labor-intensive outdoor leisure products processing enterprises have become the investment attraction direction considered by the local government.

Pingyu County organized personnel to visit Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places, and comprehensive research found that the outdoor leisure industry has a broad market prospect, which is in line with the local development reality. There are another group of Zhumadian outdoor industry practitioners in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Liu Kai, and it is timely to undertake industrial transfer. Finally, vigorously developing the outdoor leisure products industry has become Pingyu's "first move" to reshape the county economic pattern.

Similarly, Huaibin County, Xinyang City, which has more than 200000 migrant workers all the year round, also faced the dilemma of lack of leading industries. "More than 10 years ago, Huaibin had no decent enterprises. To build an industrial development zone, it was clear that there were two standards for leading industries. One was that it was easy to form a scale and not piecemeal, and the other was that it could solve the employment problem of a large number of left behind women." Song Lidong, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee of Huaibin County Industrial Agglomeration Zone, said that he tried to figure out the industries engaged in by Huaibin's overseas entrepreneurs and capture the trend of industrial transfer in the Yangtze River Delta, Considering its own resource advantages, Huaibin has chosen textile as its leading industry, starting with a hundred and ten water jet looms and a single product, to gradually cultivate Huaibin's leading industry.

In the traditional agricultural areas of Shangqiu, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Xinyang, similar industrial adjustments have been staged in more than 10 years. Sui County, Shangqiu City, once a poor county in the country, seized the opportunity of shoe industry transfer and vigorously developed shoe industry; Luyi County, Zhoukou City, located in the plain agricultural area, closely follows the trend of returning home to start businesses, continues to implement the "phoenix returning to its nest" project, and actively cultivates the cosmetics brush processing industry; Xihua County, Zhoukou City, a major labor exporting county, takes advantage of its human resources to introduce the electronic industry.

The momentum of industrial transfer is strong, and the wave of returning home and starting businesses is repeated. In 2011, in Henan, the largest province of migrant workers in China, a major turning point occurred in migrant workers' group transfer employment. For the first time, the number of employment in the province was higher than that outside the province. Since then, it has opened a historic return spanning more than 10 years. The "peacock flying southeast" has been replaced by "the return of wild geese in spring". The Central Plains has set off a development tide that contains opportunities and challenges and reshapes the county economic pattern.

　　 From small to large: east enterprises move west to form a light industry cluster belt

To meet the transfer of eastern coastal industries, Southeast Henan and some regions in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and other provinces "compete on the same platform", with similar regional locations, similar resource conditions, and the same willingness to undertake. Enterprises and industries will "spend on who", testing the vision, ability, and sincerity of all regions.

Pingyu County is facing competitive pressure from many provinces in the central part of China in the "scramble" to undertake the transfer of outdoor leisure products industry. In order to share as much as possible in the wave of industrial transfer, Pingyu County established the outdoor leisure industry management committee to provide one-stop nanny service for enterprises; Establish contact with outdoor associations in Guangzhou, Hangzhou and other places, set up four outdoor investment promotion liaison offices, select public officials, hire entrepreneurs of Pingyu nationality as investment representatives, and make long-term investment attraction; In view of the high dependence of outdoor leisure industry on logistics, the sea rail intermodal train from Zhumadian to Ningbo Port has been opened, and the first county level waterless port in the province has been set up to reduce the transportation costs of enterprises.

In order to attract Zhejiang Tapson Industrial Group Co., Ltd., the leading enterprise in the domestic outdoor leisure industry, Zhao Li, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Commerce of Pingyu County, has been stationed in its Zhejiang headquarters for a long time. When its headquarters is short of workers, he organized two batches of more than 800 workers from Pingyu to work in the factory. "Compared with other regions in the central region, we have no obvious advantage in attracting investment, but as long as enterprises have difficulties, we will do everything possible to help them." Zhao Li said that it is the sincerity of Pingyu County Government that has moved the business owners and won the trust of enterprises. In 2020, the first phase project of Henan Techson Leisure Products Co., Ltd. with more than 1800 employees will be officially put into production in Pingyu, and the second phase project with an investment of more than 5 billion yuan will be put into production this year, with an estimated annual output value of 3.5 billion yuan.

"After Tapson came to Pingyu, he also brought 15 supporting enterprises with an annual output value of more than 30 million yuan from Zhejiang, which has more obvious industrial agglomeration effect." Zhao Li is still a resident waiter of Henan Tapson Leisure Products Co., Ltd., and "what is inside the courtyard belongs to the enterprise, and what is outside the courtyard belongs to the government" is the same working philosophy as her as a resident waiter.

Today, Pingyu County has formed an outdoor leisure products industry cluster with more than 80 outdoor leisure products enterprises and more than 300 outsourcing workshops. By 2022, it will achieve an output value of 5 billion yuan, becoming the largest outdoor leisure products industry base in central China.

In order to seize the opportunity of industrial transfer in the eastern coastal areas, all parts of southeast Henan have made great efforts in land use, recruitment, services, etc. In February 2020, despite the outbreak of the epidemic and the blocked flow of people, Xihua County, a traditional agricultural county, has not stopped its pace of attracting investment. On February 17, the first migrant high-speed railway special train after the Spring Festival in Henan Province was from Xihua County to the Yangtze River Delta. 600 migrant workers from seven towns and villages took the special train to Hangzhou to participate in the skills training of employees of Zhoukou Gengde Electronics Co., Ltd. The company was introduced by Xihua County at the end of 2019. According to the market order demand, the epidemic did not interrupt its plan to start production. In that year, Zhoukou Gengde Electronics Co., Ltd. employed more than 2800 people after it was put into production. The third phase of the plant will be delivered by the end of 2023, and it is expected to share 8000 to 10000 workers after putting into production.

On the bank of Huaihe River, when Jiangsu Sunshine Group invested in the garment production factory in Huaibin County in 2022, it only took 88 days from signing the contract to trial production, which refreshed the "Huaibin Speed", while it only took 2 hours for registration, tax registration, bank account opening and other matters. "At present, 500000 suit production lines have been put into production. In the next six months, the production plan of another 1 million suit production lines will be realized, and the wool spinning project with an annual output of 10 million meters will be launched." Lu Wenjuan, deputy general manager of Sunshine (Henan) Clothing Technology Co., Ltd., said that the Group also plans to move its garment processing production lines to Huaibin to create a new garment city.

Although seizing the opportunity of industrial transfer, the southeast of Henan Province is not "open to all comers". "There are also some enterprises that want to invest to build factories, which can bring considerable tax revenue every year. But we also choose to refuse some enterprises with high energy consumption and high pollution, and those enterprises that do not conform to the development direction of industrial clusters." Song Lidong said that we will not relax in the leading industry, and it is our development direction to extend the chain, supplement the chain and strengthen the chain.

For more than 10 years, distinctive industrial clusters have sprung up in southeast Henan. Huaibin has gathered more than 200 textile and clothing enterprises. In 2022, the main business income will exceed 30 billion yuan, moving towards the goal of the largest chemical fiber textile base in the central and western regions; Sui County has more than 400 shoe making and shoe material supporting enterprises, with an annual production capacity of 300 million pairs. The leading enterprises in the industry, such as Zhongqiao Sports and Hongxingerke, have settled down one after another, and the "Central Plains Shoe City" has a strong momentum of sprinting to the "China Shoe City". There are about 140 tail hair cosmetic brush enterprises in Luyi, attracting more than 18000 skilled workers nationwide, with an annual output of 150 million sets of various cosmetic brushes. The products are exported to more than 20 countries and regions, such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

　　 From Big to Strong: Layout of "Created in China" Chess

With the light industry gathering in the southeast of Henan, the traditional agricultural areas that used to occupy land space and human resources advantages are now beginning to face the dilemma of tight land resources and lack of human resources intermittently. Some places even face the problem that "big" enterprises cannot land due to insufficient land use indicators.

"With the gradual reduction of demographic dividend and the increasing shortage of land resources, the original cost advantage of traditional agricultural areas is increasingly difficult to sustain." In Song Lidong's view, technological innovation, product upgrading, brand building, and extending the chain and strengthening the chain are the only way for the manufacturing industry to maintain its competitive advantage. Only by establishing technological advantages and creating leading products can we grasp more market bargaining power.

Open the 5G industrial Internet operation monitoring platform in Huaibin County, and the operation data of 79 online enterprises are clear at a glance, which is a key link in the intelligent transformation of Huaibin textile enterprises. "Through technological upgrading and intelligent transformation, only 10 workers are needed for a production plant with an area of more than 2000 square meters, and only two workers are needed for a production line. The labor-intensive textile industry is evolving to be less human and unmanned." Xu Dazhou, chairman of Huaibin Jiuzhou Textile Co., Ltd., said that after the technological upgrading and transformation, the output will increase and the quality will improve, but the product price will remain unchanged, Competitive advantages naturally arise.

In Sui County, Henan Jiahong Shoes Co., Ltd. has successively invested 77 million yuan in technology upgrading, established a research and development center, and undertook the testing of raw materials and finished products and product research and development tasks; Upgrade production equipment intelligently and automatically, improve product precision, reduce loss and production cost.

"With the support of technology upgrading, the production efficiency of sewing, cutting and forming of the whole factory has been increased by 31%, 30% and 15% respectively, the operating cost has been reduced by 16%, the defective rate of forming terminal products has been reduced by 29%, the defective rate of vamp has been reduced by 15%, the product development cycle has been shortened by 45 days, the energy utilization rate has been increased by 17%, the labor force has been reduced by 230 people, and the annual production has been reduced by more than 10 million yuan year-on-year." Pu Shenghe, head of Henan Jiahong Shoes Co., Ltd., said.

In order to better serve the development of the shoemaking industry, Sui County has established in-depth cooperation with more than 10 universities, institutes and industry associations, including China Leather and Footwear Industry Research Institute, Sichuan University, Zhengzhou University, and is committed to seizing the "commanding height" of the shoemaking industry development by strengthening scientific and technological research, achievements transformation, and talent introduction and training.

In Pingyu County, the local government is not satisfied with industrial agglomeration and employment promotion, but is planning to build a national outdoor leisure product testing center, outdoor furniture and leisure products innovation research and development center, and actively participate in the formulation of national industry standards. At the same time, the local government plans to organize outdoor furniture design conferences and other events, guide enterprises from product processing to product research and development, patent application, and technical certification, and spare no effort to build Pingyu outdoor brand and march towards the high-end industrial chain.

As the geographical frontier connecting Henan with the eastern coastal areas such as the Yangtze River Delta, Southeast Henan has accelerated the formation of a light industry belt with the help of local labor, land resources and other advantages over the past 10 years. Today, local industrial development has gathered trees into forests. Through technology upgrading, product research and development, and brand building, it is promoting the transformation of Chinese manufacturing to Chinese creation, Chinese speed to Chinese quality, and Chinese products to Chinese brands. In the future, industrial business cards and famous brands will become bigger and bigger in the Southeast Henan Light Industry Economic Belt. (Reporter: Li Peng, Han Chaoyang, Zhengzhou)

(Source: Economic Information Daily)