Textile Expo to draw companies from key markets

A new annual event - Textile Expo Dubai - being launched next March will bring together leading manufacturers and decision-makers from the Subcontinent, Africa, the CIS countries, as well as the Middle East.

The setting up of the trade show comes as manufacturers are preparing to make massive investments in modernisation to meet the considerable challenge of Chinese competition with the abolition of trade quotas next year.

The value of textiles to the region is most vividly highlighted in India, where textile and garment exports are expected to jump from around $13.5 billion last year to $50 billion in 2010, a rise from 3 per cent to 8 per cent of the world's textiles.

In the Middle East, clothing and accessories exports amount to $11 billion a year, and a $54 million Textile City being built in Dubai will add to the emirate's status as a hub for the trade.

Organised by the UK's XPO Events/Turret-Rai in collaboration with UAE-based Streamline Marketing, Textile Expo Dubai will take place from March 20 to 23 at the Airport Expo Dubai.

Occupying 25,000 square metres of exhibition space, it will be the biggest of its kind in the region, according to a media release.

Exhibitors from more than 15 countries have already signed up for the event which will attract visitors from the key textile markets of the region, including Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Africa and the CIS. Running alongside the exhibition will be a major international textile industry conference.

"The Middle East is now ranked fourth in the world league of fashion and clothing accessories exporters, accounting for almost 5.5 per cent of the global trade," said Nick Webb, director of Streamline Marketing.

"In India, the garment industry is the country's biggest industrial employer, providing jobs for proximately 38 million people and boasting 28,000 exporters of ready-made clothing.

"Figures such as these indicate the need to bring a specialised event closer to home for the region's textile and leather goods manufacturers and the response we have so far received from individual exhibitors has been very encouraging."

Valued at $2.4 billion, Dubai's textile industry has played a critical role in the emirate's economic development, and is now the second largest contributor to Dubai trade, including exports and imports. In Jordan, garments topped exports last year, accounting for 33.6 per cent - 477.9 million Jordanian dinars - of total exports.

In Pakistan, the garment and textiles industry contributes more than 65 per cent to total export earnings, and by next year annual exports are expected to reach $10 billion.

Sri Lanka's textile and apparel industry is the biggest employer in the manufacturing industry, and the country's top export earner.