DUBAI, 22 July 2004 — Dubai is set to become an international focal point for the rapidly expanding textile industry, a multi-billion dollar business employing millions of people across Asia and showing major development in the Middle East. A new annual event being launched next March, Textile Expo Dubai, will bring together leading manufacturers and thousands of industry decision-makers from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, the CIS countries, as well as the Middle East.
The creation of this new shop window comes as manufacturers are preparing to make massive investments in modernization to meet the considerable challenge of Chinese competition with the abolition of trade quotas in 2005.
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 in 2003 to $50 billion in 2010, a rise from 3 percent to 8 percent 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 major trading hub. Organized by the UK-based XPO Events/Turret-Rai in collaboration with UAE-based event management and marketing specialists, Streamline Marketing, Textile Expo Dubai will take place from March 20-23, 2005 at Airport Expo Dubai.
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. “The Middle East is now ranked fourth in the world league of fashion and clothing accessories exporters, accounting for almost 5.5 percent of the global trade,” said Nick Webb, director, 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.