Speech by Chairman Yang Xiaojing at the 9th Executive Council Meeting of the 11th China Sewing Machinery Association and the 17th Industry Core Enterprises Summit

In 2025, the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s sewing machinery industry overcame difficulties with remarkable resilience and maintained overall positive momentum. Throughout the year, the industry produced 10.15 million units of household and industrial sewing equipment. Among 292 above-designated-size enterprises, operating revenue reached RMB 34.543 billion, up 7.71% year-on-year; total profits amounted to RMB 2.266 billion, up 29.47%; and total exports reached USD 3.986 billion, up 16.42%, hitting a new historical high.

In 2026, China officially embarks on the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. To thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the Association has released three key documents: the Guiding Opinions on High-Quality Development of China’s Sewing Machinery Industry for the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Technology Roadmap, and the Key Tasks for Standardization Development. These documents define the overarching goal of transitioning the industry from being primarily product- and scale-driven to a new development stage characterized by leadership in engineering capabilities, quality governance, and system-level service capabilities. The aim is to guide the entire industry in advancing transformation and upgrading, and in building a modern industrial system with stronger innovation capacity, higher value-added, and greater sustainability. Enterprises are encouraged to study and actively implement the 15th Five-Year Plan by strengthening technological innovation, upgrading applications, enhancing open collaboration, empowering development through digital and intelligent transformation, and safeguarding progress through standards—thereby opening a new chapter for the industry.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to share several views on the industry’s next stage of development and our key priorities:

Strengthening Internal Capabilities and Optimizing Layout to Advance to a New Stage of Industrial Development

The recently concluded Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress reviewed and approved the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, which calls for building a modern industrial system, consolidating the foundation of the real economy, strengthening national standards leadership, empowering development through digital, intelligent, and green technologies, enhancing China’s position in the global division of labor, upgrading key industries, and improving the autonomy and controllability of industrial chains. This provides clear direction for our industry.

Enterprises should stay focused, strengthen confidence, and remain committed to their core business. During the coming strategic window of opportunity, they should prioritize the development of new quality productive forces, pursue self-reliance and upgrading, and accelerate the establishment of a modern sewing machinery industrial system centered on advanced manufacturing.

Innovation-driven development must be upheld. With “digital and intelligent transformation” as the core, enterprises should enhance both key technological and systemic innovation capabilities, strengthen basic research, improve technical systems, break through bottleneck technologies, and intensify product innovation. At the same time, leveraging artificial intelligence to reshape industrial architecture, exploring new tracks and models, and achieving deep integration of the digital and real economies will be essential. Innovation should extend beyond products and processes to include business models, management, marketing, and services—realizing full-process innovation in enterprise operations.

Enterprises should cultivate endogenous growth momentum and pursue specialization, refinement, uniqueness, and innovation. By segmenting markets and aligning product development with user needs and pain points, companies can avoid homogenized competition and achieve differentiated development. Supported by rapid advances in AI and digital technologies, enterprises should accelerate digital transformation and equipment upgrading, opening up new tracks and expanding into new fields.

Quality-first and green development must be emphasized. By implementing China’s “three products” strategy—enhancing product quality, raising standards, and building strong brands—enterprises can achieve comprehensive innovation and structural optimization. A full-chain quality assurance system and multi-level brand体系 should be established. In response to the “dual carbon” strategy, companies—especially leading enterprises—should promote green product design and green factory construction, increase the use of energy-efficient motors, eco-friendly materials, and low-consumption technologies, and advance the development of a green manufacturing system.

Industrial structure should be optimized through integrated development. By focusing on strengthening fundamentals, upgrading capabilities, fostering innovation, expanding capacity, and improving quality and efficiency, enterprises can enhance the resilience of the industrial chain. The industry should accelerate the transition from manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing, with intelligent integrated sewing solutions as a key entry point, improving digitalization, intelligence, and customization. Strengthened industrial coordination through process optimization, information sharing, and resource integration will foster a synergistic ecosystem.

Talent development is critical for sustainability. Efforts should be made to cultivate scientific and technological talent, especially in areas such as AI integration across the manufacturing value chain. Management talent development should also be strengthened through collaboration with research institutes, universities, and professional organizations. The structure of skilled labor should be optimized, with greater emphasis on high-skilled人才培养. Industry platforms such as vocational skills competitions should be fully utilized. In addition, the cultivation of leading and young talent should be accelerated to build a new generation of industry leaders with global vision, strong responsibility, and strategic capability.

Entrepreneurship must be upheld to drive high-quality development. The industry should carry forward its long-standing spirit of perseverance and innovation, fostering a new generation of entrepreneurs characterized by patriotism, integrity, innovation, social responsibility, and global vision, thereby leading the industry toward a higher level of development.

Expanding Markets through Integration and Advancing Toward a New Stage of Global Integration

The global economy is undergoing profound adjustment, with rising trade frictions, geopolitical tensions, supply chain regionalization, and increasing technological and green barriers. While these pose challenges, they also present opportunities.

First, enterprises should strengthen their domestic market presence. Supported by national policies promoting equipment renewal and industrial upgrading, companies should identify new opportunities and demands driven by policy incentives, optimize product positioning, enhance service capabilities, and capture new growth space.

Second, enterprises should actively expand overseas markets. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, exports reached nearly USD 4 billion, covering 207 countries and regions, with export share rising to 56%. Under the dual circulation strategy, companies should accelerate “deep globalization,” focusing on Belt and Road markets, Latin America, and North Africa, and shift from global sales to global operations.

Third, enterprises should integrate resources and expand application markets. With an open mindset, companies should extend sewing equipment applications into automotive interiors, smart home, healthcare, industrial textiles, and aerospace, while enhancing capabilities in resource integration, customization, and rapid response.

Strengthening Strategic Collaboration to Advance Toward a New Stage of Ecosystem Synergy

The global sewing industry chain is undergoing profound transformation, driven by new technologies and new business models. Enterprises must embrace these changes and strengthen collaborative innovation.

At the enterprise level, deeper cooperation in technology and resources is needed to enhance supply chain resilience and jointly explore markets. At the industry chain level, coordination between components and complete machine manufacturers should be strengthened, and industry platforms should facilitate upstream and downstream integration. At the external level, collaboration with government, academia, and research institutions should be enhanced to support industrial cluster development.

Diligence in spring leads to harvest in autumn. The blueprint of the 15th Five-Year Plan has unfolded, and the responsibility for industrial transformation rests on our generation. As the backbone of the industry, executive council members are expected to take initiative, embrace responsibility, and contribute actively to the successful implementation of the Plan.

The newly released plan outlines key projects and initiatives that will shape the industry over the next five years. The China Sewing Machinery Association will work together with all stakeholders to ensure their effective implementation, delivering a strong contribution toward national development goals and the advancement of China into the forefront of global manufacturing.