Building Dreams Together, Embarking on a New Journey - Grand Opening Ceremony of the China Furniture Association's Upholstered Furniture Professional Committee

On May 10th, the establishment meeting of the China Furniture Association's Upholstered Furniture Professional Committee, themed "Jointly Building Dreams and Opening a New Chapter," was grandly held in Qingfeng, Henan. Leaders and guests including Xu Xiangnan, Chairman of the China Furniture Association; Zhou Dongke, Standing Committee Member and Executive Deputy Mayor of Puyang Municipal Committee; Yang Xiaojing, Chairman of the China Sewing Machinery Association; Tu Qi, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Furniture Association; Luo Ruidong, First-Level Section Chief of the Light Industry Department, Consumer Goods Industry Department, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Gao Shanggong, Secretary of the Qingfeng County Committee; Zhao Yang, Town Head of Fangjiazhuang Town, Baodi District, Tianjin; and over 160 people including members of the upholstered furniture professional committee from across the country, raw material suppliers, equipment manufacturers, representatives from research institutions, and design agencies attended the meeting. The meeting deliberated and passed the working rules and organizational structure of the upholstered furniture professional committee. Tu Qi serves as the director, Huang Huakun, Chen Ayuyu, and Di Xining as executive directors, Yu Ting and others as deputy directors, Wu Guodong as secretary-general, and Dai Zhipeng as deputy secretary-general.

Xu Xiangnan, Chairman of the China Furniture Association, delivered a speech at the meeting. He pointed out that upholstered furniture, as an important component of China's furniture industry, has made a remarkable contribution to meeting the needs of people worldwide for a better life, achieving a leap from manual workshops to intelligent manufacturing and from imitation and following to independent innovation during the more than 40 years of reform and opening up. The merger of the upholstered furniture and sofa committees into the upholstered furniture committee will integrate industry resources and restructure the ecosystem of the sub-sector. He stated that while China's economy is currently recovering and improving, there is insufficient effective demand, and some enterprises are facing difficulties in production and operation. Since last year, a policy combination of government special subsidies and joint price reductions by enterprises has lowered the threshold for consumers to replace old furniture with new, driving a certain degree of consumption growth. In the face of foreign trade pressure, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and other ministries and commissions have repeatedly invited the China Furniture Association to hold special meetings to study the current international situation, enterprise demands, and countermeasures, encouraging enterprises to follow the national pace, maintain confidence, and work together to do a good job in foreign trade. He emphasized that in the face of technological development and policy opportunities, upholstered furniture enterprises should take technological innovation as the core driving force, accelerate the deep integration of intelligent technology, environmentally friendly processes, and traditional manufacturing, and empower the entire industrial chain upgrade through digitalization; accurately grasp the changing needs of new consumer groups, establish a full-chain rapid response mechanism, and achieve a service system for overall home solutions; and adhere to both cultural confidence and an international perspective, creating original designs that combine artistic value and practicality, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a strong furniture nation. He expects the committee to take intelligence, greenness, and internationalization as its direction, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to the sustainable development of the global furniture industry.

Zhou Dongke, Standing Committee Member and Executive Deputy Mayor of Puyang Municipal Committee, delivered a welcome speech. He introduced that Puyang Qingfeng is a charming city born from wood and prospered by craftsmanship. In recent years, Qingfeng County has unwaveringly focused on the home furnishing industry as its primary leading industry, striving to build a "Central China Furniture Industry Base," promoting the transformation of traditional crafts into intelligent manufacturing and the transition from scattered layouts to cluster development. The "high-quality home furnishings made in Qingfeng" are renowned domestically. The establishment of the upholstered furniture professional committee is not only an important milestone in the development history of China's furniture industry but also a key opportunity to empower the home furnishing industry to expand its development space and achieve a level upgrade, injecting strong impetus into the transformation and upgrading of the upholstered furniture industry and driving the industry towards new heights. He expressed his hope that the participants would provide accurate insights and guidance for Qingfeng's home furnishing industry, and he looked forward to friends from all walks of life coming to Puyang to invest in Puyang, exploring cooperation potential and sharing development benefits. Puyang will use the best business environment, the most comprehensive element guarantees, and the warmest preferential policies for enterprises to fully promote the high-quality development of the home furnishing industry.
Yang Xiaojing, Chairman of the China Sewing Machinery Association, introduced in his speech that in 2024, the Chinese sewing machinery industry will deepen the new driving force of innovation, further build a new pattern of dual-circulation development, achieve restorative growth, significantly improve the business climate index, and steadily increase domestic demand and exports. He stated that with the acceleration of the process of building a modernized industrial system, the synergy between China's sewing machinery and China's furniture is deepening, and the transformation and application of scientific research and innovation achievements are accelerating. Integrated automated production lines and overall solutions supported by high-tech value-added equipment will greatly assist furniture manufacturers in their digital and intelligent transformation, becoming a necessary path for upholstered furniture companies to create product lifecycles. The China Sewing Machinery Association and the China Furniture Association have jointly organized numerous technical seminars, visits and exchanges, and intelligent diagnosis activities, building a collaborative development platform for the industrial chain and playing a positive role. In the future, the China Sewing Machinery Association will continue to promote the continuous development of various tasks and contribute to the development of the industrial chain.

Tu Qi, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Furniture Association and Director of the Upholstered Furniture Professional Committee, expressed gratitude for the encouragement and affirmation from Chairman Xu Xiangnan and the trust and support from the committee members. She reported the committee's work plan in three aspects. First, cultivate new productive forces and create an innovation-driven industrial model. Through national award applications, cross-industry platform construction, and the formulation of high-quality standards, promote greater development of the upholstered furniture industry. Second, participate in global high-level competition and create world-class brands. Gather resources from the World Furniture Federation and the Asian Furniture Federation, link up the top ten brand evaluation work and the "Brand Going Global Plan," build an international exhibition and trade platform, and let Chinese brands shine globally. Third, promote design innovation and empower industrial development. Using talent education and professional competitions as a lever and international exhibitions and study tours as a platform, continue to promote the global tour of the "Contemporary Life Culture Exhibition" project and create an international calling card for "Chinese design." She stated that the upholstered furniture professional committee is a professional organization at the forefront of innovation, a vital force in promoting industrial innovation and development, and looks forward to working with everyone to create an industrial ecosystem of "cross-border integration, industry self-discipline, technological breakthroughs, brand breakthroughs, and standard leadership," serving the better lives of hundreds of millions of families with more environmentally friendly, intelligent, and user-friendly products.

Chairman Xu Xiangnan presented certificates to the director, executive directors, and deputy directors of the upholstered furniture professional committee. Director Tu Qi presented certificates to the members, secretary-general, and deputy secretary-general of the upholstered furniture professional committee. Wu Guodong, Supervisor-General of the China Furniture Association and Secretary-General of the Upholstered Furniture Professional Committee, presided over the meeting. Xie Youyou, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Furniture Association, read the document "Decision on the Appointment of the China Furniture Association Upholstered Furniture Professional Committee." Di Xiefei, Deputy General Manager of Shandong Fengyang Home Furnishing Co., Ltd., gave a themed speech titled "Fengyang Home Furnishing—A Two-Way Rush of 52 Years of Inheritance and Youthful Innovation," and Dong Zhilüe, Joint President of Xiamen Himila Furniture Co., Ltd., gave a themed speech titled "Tonight No One Is Sleepless—Himila's Practice from AI Sleep Aid to AI Companionship."
During the meeting, an exhibition of raw materials and equipment for upholstered furniture was organized. The leaders and guests visited the exhibition and visited the booths of Tianjin Zaidenggao, Hunan Nanyuan, and Wangcheng Sponge, exchanging achievements and trends in the integrated development of the home furnishing industry chain. The conference received widespread attention and strong support from upholstered furniture and related upstream and downstream industry units and individuals. The successful holding of the event marks the beginning of a new process for the upholstered furniture industry. The upholstered furniture professional committee aims to integrate industry resources, restructure the ecosystem of sub-sectors, promote collaborative innovation in the industrial chain, and achieve intelligent, green, and integrated development. In the future, it will focus on core tasks such as the application of intelligent technologies, the formulation of green standards, and the construction of international brands, helping the industry transform from "scale expansion" to "quality leap." (Source: Official WeChat account of the China Furniture Association)

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