Northwest China’s Xinjiang should continue expanding high-level opening-up, shoring up cotton production edge: CPPCC member

A drone photo shows self-driving seeders working in the farmland in Awat County of Aksu, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 27, 2024. Xinjiang is a major hub of cotton production. As the temperature rises, the spring sowing of cotton in Xinjiang kicked off from south to north. In recent years, advancements in agricultural technology have gradually become vital allies to the farmers of Xinjiang. From planting to harvesting, mechanization and intelligent facilities have been widely applied. (Photo/Xinhua)

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region should leverage its strategic position as the Eurasian Golden Corridor and gateway for China's westward opening-up, and ramp up economic exchanges with Central Asian countries as well as exploring markets in ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa, according to a proposal put forward by Liang Yong, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body.

Liang is a member of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, one of China's eight non-communist political parties. He is also the director of Xinjiang cotton industry development leadership office.

"We expect Xinjiang, building on its advantage, to establish a global industrial and supply chain that could further link up the West with the East," Liang said, while taking note of the province's robust foreign trade momentum last year.

In 2024, Xinjiang's foreign trade expanded by 21.8 percent to reach 435.11 billion yuan ($59.88 billion), customs data showed, with the growth rate 16.8 percentage points higher than China's national average growth rate. "From breaking the 200-billion-yuan mark in 2022 to surpassing the 400-billion-yuan threshold in 2024 in foreign trade, Xinjiang achieved three consecutive leaps of 100-billion-yuan steps in three years, demonstrating an explosive growth trajectory," Liang said.

Liang submitted three proposals for this year's two sessions, with two involving supporting the development of the cotton farming in the Xinjiang region.

Liang proposed that China should continue to implement and improve cotton pricingmechanism, and stabilize domestic cotton production so as to shore up the international competitiveness of China's textile and apparel industry.

"Based on my estimates, China still needs to import more than 4 million tons of cotton and cotton yarn annually, with a cotton self-sufficiency rate of less than 65 percent. Therefore, it is very important to ensure the security of the country's cotton supply," he noted.

Liang added that "the scale advantage of China's cotton and related industry does not align with its international influence in standard-setting and value distribution, as such influence remains largely controlled by countries such as the US and UK. "

As such, China's cotton and textile industry as a whole needs to "focus on doing its own work" to advance a more innovative and efficient system, while expanding into new fields, he said.

He suggested more efforts should be made to strengthen connectivity with neighboring countries in cotton trade and establishing an independent cotton pricing mechanism. Also, it is an urgent task to promote the certification and branding of "Xinjiang Cotton" and building a quality traceability system to boost the value of local cotton manufacturing.

Liang said that during the two sessions, he will focus on topics involving how technological innovation could elevate China's all-round industrial competitiveness.

Thanks to the application of mechanization, digitalization, and increasingly intelligent technology, as well as the promotion of large-scale rural cultivation, the cost of cotton farming per mu (0.067 hectares) dropped by 1.1 percent year-on-year on average last year. In particular, the average labor cost per mu came down by 25.1 percent, only half of the cost seen five years ago, according to Liang.

"I believe that the promotion and application of smarter agriculture, powered by 5G and artificial intelligence, will further reduce the cost of cotton cultivation in the Xinjiang region and enhance the sector's competitiveness," he said.