Yizhou Textile City. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

Hechi has recently been focused on developing its Hechi Textile City project in an effort to promote the construction of a mulberry silk farming and silk deep processing industrial park, thus transforming itself into China's new silk capital.

Yizhou Textile City is the first phase of the Hechi Textile City project. It is located in the Hechi Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a planned land area of 646.52 mu (43 hectares) and an estimated total investment of 3.48 billion yuan ($477 million).

It includes four standard factory construction projects: a comprehensive processing area, a clothing processing area, an auxiliary material processing area, and a mulberry silk industrial park. To date, the comprehensive processing area has been put into use and three enterprises have been introduced.

"Currently, the Hechi Textile City project has been listed as a major project for overall promotion at the autonomous region level. It has also been recognized as a key project for attracting investment in Guangxi, and it is one of Hechi's major projects," said Yang Changzhi, general manager of Hechi Economic and Technological Development Zone Investment Development Construction.

According to Yang, the project aims to construct a clothing processing city that integrates clothing processing and production, silk auxiliary material production, fashion design, and industry-related education and training. Once completed, the project plans to attract 500 companies and achieve a total annual output value of more than 25 billion yuan.

Hechi has seen continuous growth in its silk industry in recent years. Its silkworm and mulberry base scale and silk processing capacity have ranked first among all prefecture-level cities in China for 18 consecutive years.