China announces textile stimulus plan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-24 21:14

BEIJING -- China's State Council, or cabinet, Friday unveiled a detailed, three-year support plan for the textile industry.

The Council said the plan was intended to ensure stable development in the industry and upgrade its structure.

The plan said the annual production of large textile enterprises (with annual revenue of more than 5 million yuan or US$732,000) was expected to increase by 10 percent year on year.

Thus, if the plan was fulfilled, the annual output of such enterprises would rise to 1.2 trillion yuan by 2011 from 812.6 billion yuan in 2007, instead of 850 billion yuan in 2008 stated in an earlier report on Friday.

Textile and garment exports were expected to grow 8 percent annually during the same period to US$240 billion by 2011.

The country would also do more to eliminate obsolete capacity, reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency in the textile industry.

The cabinet also suggested higher export tax rebate rates for textile products.

China has raised the export tax rebate rate for textiles five times since August to help textile makers cope with stagnant demand. The most recent increase, announced this month, took the rate from 15 percent to 16 percent.

Since January, China has announced stimulus plans for 10 industries, including vehicles, steel, shipbuilding, textiles, machinery, electronics and information technology.