Made in China Remade
Rising labor costs and the global financial crisis have wiped out huge swaths of China's export manufacturing base. But that could be a blessing in disguise for China, as market consolidation leads to the emergence of larger firms that, by investing more in product innovation and design, move the economy up the value chain.
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SHANGHAI – “It’s a dying business,” said the owner of a garment factory I met in Zhuhai, a city in Guangdong province. Like many in his line of business, he is packing up. Lured by abundant cheap labor, investors flooded to Zhuhai two decades ago. Gone, it seems, is the heyday of T-shirts, toys, plastic flowers, tiles, hooks, springs, and the like. Today, the costs of manufacturing such items are lower in countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam than in Guangdong.