Chinese delegation in India to promote Silk Fair

Bangalore, May 28 (UNI) World's largest silk producer China has sent a delegation to India to promote its International Silk Fair and Women's Fair to be held in Hangzou in October this year.

Led by Qian Youqing, General Secretary of the China National Silk Association, the ten member delegation is wooing Indian garment makers for the Fair and foster better trade relations between the two countries.

Currently India was importing about one billion dollar worth of Chinese silk out of the total exports of 15 billion dollars to India. The bilateral trade between the two countries was worth 25 billion dollars and was expected to touch 40 billion dollars by 2010, Mr Chen Jincheng, Economic and Commercial Counsul for China in Mumbai told newsmen.

He said the Indian trade accounted for only 1.7 per cent of the total trade of his country and there was tremendous potential.

Between January and March this year China exported pure silk to the tune of 803 million dollars.

Addressing the Chinese delgation, Chairman of Silk Export Promotion Council T V Maruti sought closer cooperation between the two countries to enhance the global silk exports, which was on the wane due to competition from other fabrics. Their was need for a joint collaboration between the two countries to enhance the qualities of silk so that it caught the imagination of new generation, he added.

Karnataka Director for Sericulture Mohamed Sanaulla sought the cooperation of Chinese silk producers to introduce new races of tropical silkworm in India to enhance production which hovered around 16000 tonnes as against 120,000 tonnes produced by China.

UNI