By Shi Wei
Jinjiang City in Fujian Province, famous of its shoe-making industry in China, has a predestined relationship with sports. At present, there are more than 3,000 enterprises manufacturing sports products in the city with the annual output value adding up to RMB27.9 billion yuan. Jinjiang was awarded with the title of "National Sports Industry Base" by the General Administration of Sport of China at the end of last year, indicating that the sports industry with "Made in Jinjiang" as a main body has stepped from acting as a brand for enterprises in the past into a new stage of acting as a brand for the city.
As one of the cities with a highest concentration of famous brands in China, Jinjiang is provided with many dazzling halos, including 13 titles related to China as a state like "International Jacket Capital" and "Shoe Capital in China".
The growth of Jinjiang as a "Brand Capital" is such a process during which enterprises got developed and strengthened by combining with sports incessantly. In recent years, a big batch of sport product companies, such as ANTA Sports Products Limited, have become eminent and grown into enterprises with famous brands in China's sports circle. With such enterprises leading the way, businesses in Jinjiang have grasped the opportunity that the sports consumption became incessantly heated in China, incessantly created new modes for industrial development, and established a huge regional production base for sports products. Statistics show that at present, the employment population engaged in the sports industry amount to 240,000 people in Jinjiang City, accounting for a quarter of the total population of Jinjiang city; and the added value of sports industry amounts to over RMB9 billion yuan, taking up nearly one fifth of Jinjiang's GDP.
What is corresponding to the prosperous development of the local sports industry is that there are hundreds of citizens running and doing exercises when the sun rises in the morning each at the Jingjiang Sports Center, thus there presents a scene that all people do exercises. In the city, the mass athletic sports are deeply rooted: there are 36 flourishing sport communities in the city, which have won such honorable titles as "National Sports Advanced City", "National Mass Sports Advanced Institution" and "National Hometown of Martial Arts" in recent years. In recent years, investments made in mass sports have been increasing year by year in Jinjiang City, and sports facilities are being consummated continuously; for the moment, the per capita area in sports facilities amounts to 2.41m2, far beyond the national average.
Winning the title as a Sports Industry Base brought a great resonance in the business circle in Jinjiang City. When being interviewed, many enterprises expressed that Jinjiang's sports industry needed a new platform for demonstration, and winning the title of "National Sports Industry Base" marked that Jinjiang's sports industry would enter a brand-new development period and the future of an industry base could be clearly forecasted. What's more, both high-end sports events and brand-new cooperation modes will be advantageous to the fast growth of sports product manufacturing enterprises in Jinjiang. Xia Youqun, President Assistant of 361�� (China) Co., Ltd., believed that the fact that Jinjiang won the title as a "National Sports Industry Base" would result in an aggregation effect among Jinjiang's sports brands, including integration of the sports industrial chain, the accumulation of sports talents, etc., all of which would enable Jinjiang's sports industry to step onto a new stage.
As planned, such existing resources as industry, human culture, nature, tourism and sports will get integrated in Jinjiang; in the coming three to five years, emphases will be laid on promoting the development of a sports and leisure industrial park on the shore, establishing a modern base for sports facility manufacturing industry and a national training base, developing the sports leisure industry for body building and sports event performing industry as prescribed in the strategic layout of "one region, two bases and one center". And the sports and leisure industrial park on the shore planned to be set up in Jinnan section of the Passageway along the sea has been approved by leaders and related experts from the General Administration of Sport of China. The "one park and four areas" for the sports industry in the plan include a theme park about sports ecology, a fashion sports area for leisure, a headquarter base for the sports industry and a central business area, a sports community and a sports area on the shore. At present, the local government of Jinjiang City has commissioned the Sports Science Research Institute of the General Administration of Sport of China to preside over the argumentation for a sports city, the plan for a sports industry, and specific plans for such items as sports products, body building and recreation, competition and performance, and theme parks. Great efforts will be made to establish Jinjiang into a national demonstration base for the development of the sports industry, an internationally influential modern base for sports product manufacturing industry, and a modern sports city with unique charms within three to five years. Meanwhile, Jinjiang will further consummate its auxiliary facilities to attract more sports teams to conduct winter trainings and adjustment trainings, encourage enterprises to cooperate with famous athletes so as to tap sports intangible assets, and encourage excellent retired athletes to start or develop their businesses in Jinjiang.
The CPC Jinjiang Municipal Committee and the Municipal Government of Jinjiang believe that to build up a sports city is not only the requirement on consummating the sports product industrial chain, promoting the industrial upgrading, developing modern service industries, and optimizing the three-time industrial structure but also the requirement on guiding enterprises to realize marketing innovation, achieve a larger scale and become more competitive. In the future, an industrial base, where an industrial chain will be integrated, the region concentration ability will be stronger, well-known brands will be accumulated and sales network will be developed will come into being in Jinjiang with the sports industry playing the role of a leader; and a most influential sports event center on the west coast of Taiwan Haixia will be built up by selecting out a batch of specific sports event with international influences according to the regional advantages, development orientation, and enterprise demands of Jinjiang.
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