China Garment Industry Makes Important Strides

This means that China can now offer 4 pieces of clothing to every person on the planet, said Jiang Hengjie, vice chairman of the China Garment Association, at a seminar held during the festival.

China's garment industry has witnessed annual growth of 9 percent in output during recent years, with exports accounting for 12 percent of the country's total exports in 2002, he said.

China became the world's leading garment producer and exporter in 1994 and is home to 13,600 garment makers which employ 4.31 million. As many as 97.5 percent of the producers are privately-owned, added Jiang.

Thanks to China's accession to the World Trade Organization, its garment industry gained momentum and achieved record highs in output, exports and fixed asset growth in 2002, he added.

Hundreds of overseas garment producers from the United States, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, France, and Hong Kong attended the garment festival which opened Wednesday in the city of Yangzhou.

More than 20 garment festivals are held across China each year, four of them in Yangzhou, known for its "shirt kingdom" in the local Hanjiang district.

There are now 34 big garment enterprises in Hanjiang, producing 17 million shirts a year, one-tenth of the country's total.

During the festival, the district signed contracts worth 560 million yuan (some 67 million dollars) in overseas investment for local garment production.