Work on a huge textile production center has just started on the outskirts of Shanghai.

Total investment of 280 million yuan will be spent on the center, which will focus on various newly-developed textile products when it officially opens next year.

An official with the municipal government said the center is part of the city's effort to make the textile industry highly profitable again after its major restructuring over the past few years.

China's textile industry suffered from a surfeit of staff and inefficiency. China started a three-year reform program to help the industry become profitable in 1998.

Under the program, outdated machinery and equipment including 10 million of the country's 46 million spindles in cotton mills are expected to be scrapped to cut down production capacity and increase efficiency.

Shanghai has closed 185 cotton mills and reduced its number of spindles from 2.5 million to less than one million.

Last year Shanghai reported 15.8 billion yuan in textile sales, with profits from the industry amounting to about 200 million yuan. (Xinhua)