Traditional Textile Base Hopes to Become Fashion CenterChangzhou, a traditional textile industrial base in east China's Jiangsu Province, hopes to become a fashion center in the coming five years."We plan to expand our garment industry through a strategic restructuring in two years. By 2003, we'll turn major garment enterprises into brand-name manufacturers, and by 2005, we'll become a fashion center with abundant professionals and brand- names," said vice-mayor Wang Zhengping, at a press briefing here Thursday. Textile and garment are two pillar industries in Changzhou, a city in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River that has a history of over 2,500 years. Its first weaving plant was founded in 1906. Apart from its traditional corduroy products, the city is also origin of jeans, woolen fabric and silk. It is a major production base for world-famous brands including Puma, Adidas, Goldlion and Polo. The 339 large-scale textile and garment manufacturers based in Changzhou report an annual sales of 17.5 billion yuan (about 2.1 billion U.S. dollars). Each year, an average of 25,000 pieces of garments produced by the city has been exported, among which 80 percent has been exported to Japan, Europe and America. Last year, the city manufactured a total of 239 million pieces of garments, accounting for about 2 percent of the country's total. |
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