"Made In ASEAN" Challenges China'S "World Factory"

"Good quality and low price" was once the general impression of "Made in China". However, at the 9th China ASEAN Expo held in Nanning, Guangxi, from September 21 to 25, people noticed that "Made in ASEAN" was also good and cheap, even cheaper: Thai clothing, Malaysian coffee, Vietnam slipper ……

It seems that the rise of ASEAN manufacturing industry has become an indisputable fact, and the transfer of manufacturing capital from China to ASEAN countries has gradually become a trend. In the face of the challenge of "Made in ASEAN", can China continue to be the "World Factory"? Are China and ASEAN manufacturing competitors or partners?

　　 "World Factory" China meets challenges

Where is the first choice for investment and plant establishment? Throw this problem to the developed areas manufacturing industry People, in the past decade, the answer is mostly China! Now, the answer may be Southeast Asia, and China's status as the "world factory" is being challenged.

Take Nike, a well-known sports brand that "moved" from China to Vietnam as an example. In 2000, China produced 40% of the world's Nike shoes, ranking first in the world; Now, Vietnam has replaced China as the world's largest producer of Nike shoes.

According to the 2012 World Investment Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the inflow of foreign direct investment into Southeast Asia in 2011 reached 117 billion US dollars, up 26% year on year, while the growth rate of China in the same period was less than 8%. Not only did the foreign capital originally invested in China begin to transfer to ASEAN countries, but the manufacturing industry in eastern China also showed a trend of transfer to ASEAN countries.

Chen Jiagui, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that as a major trading country, China has maintained a long-term trade surplus with many European and American countries. For the sake of pursuing trade balance, forcing the appreciation of the renminbi, and winning election votes, European and American countries tend to create trade frictions against China and increase trade barriers against "Made in China". But European and American countries "need to import from other regions even if they do not import from China". The transfer of manufacturing to ASEAN countries can effectively avoid these trade barriers.

　　 "Made in ASEAN" is hard to shake "Made in China"

Although "Made in China" has met the challenge of "Made in ASEAN", experts attending the 9th China ASEAN Expo generally believe that China's manufacturing industry will still have strong advantages in the future, and China's manufacturing industry chain and labor quality accumulated in the 30 years of reform and opening up process will still be in a leading position in the world.

Chen Jiagui judged that although some enterprises will "transfer out" in the future, the number will not be large. He believes that although the labor cost of ASEAN countries is relatively low, the labor quality is not as good as that of the mainland. At present, China has basically popularized nine-year compulsory education, and the labor quality is relatively high, "which is unmatched by most ASEAN countries at present".

At the same time, compared with China, ASEAN countries lag behind in infrastructure construction. Guangdong Li Hui, deputy general manager of Zhenrong Energy Co., Ltd., said that the infrastructure of some ASEAN countries was not very ideal, which increased investment pressure and prolonged the construction cycle.

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Experts believe that even if some foreign-funded enterprises move to Southeast Asian countries, they will inevitably encounter the pressure of restructuring the industrial chain. In fact, these foreign-funded enterprises that have gone or are going to "go to Nanyang" have formed a difficult relationship with China, the "world factory". Although these enterprises have left China, from the perspective of future upstream and downstream relationships, they can not do without China's manufacturing system to a large extent. At present, the supporting facilities of ASEAN's electronic industry are incomplete, and many parts must be transported from the Pearl River Delta, increasing the logistics and time costs.

　 China and ASEAN: Cooperation or Competition?

In the face of the sense of crisis brought about by the rise of "Made in ASEAN", experts and scholars are generally optimistic about this. They believe that this will be a good opportunity to force China's manufacturing industry to transform and upgrade. There is a broad prospect for bilateral manufacturing cooperation.

Chen Jiagui said that China should strive to achieve "industrial differentiation layout" with ASEAN, that is, combine China's current strategy of upgrading and transferring industrial structure, transfer part of manufacturing capacity to Southeast Asian countries with relatively low labor force, so as to not only solve the development of local labor force and related industries, but also optimize China's domestic industrial layout, The development of manufacturing industry between China and ASEAN is "more cooperation than competition".

On September 22, the 2012 China ASEAN Advanced Manufacturing Development Forum with the theme of "cooperation, progress and win-win" was held in Nanning. Su Bo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the forum that ASEAN is rich in oil and natural gas resources and is also a major rubber planting and export region, while China is a major importer; At the same time, among China and ASEAN member countries, the highest per capita monthly wage is more than $4000, and the lowest is only $100. There is a clear gradient in the industrial level, and the space and potential for industrial cooperation between the two sides are very broad.