REGIONAL> Highlights
Textile IPR protected
By CHEN QIDE (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-24 18:21

SHANGHAI: Organizers of ITMA Asia, which will be open on July 27, will take strict measures to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) of exhibitors from being encroached.

"Those who violate it will be deprived of the right to attend the exhibition," said ITMA Asia Spokeswoman Zheng Yan today.

All the exhibitors, no matter who are Chinese or foreign, are required to sign a promise letter with sponsors, Zheng said.

Sponsors has set up an IPR office at W4 hall of the Shanghai New International Expo Center to deal with the disputes concerning IPR.

IPR experts including officials from the Shanghai IPR Administration, legal consultants and textile trade experts will provide consulting services for exhibitors and visitors, she said.

``We have the responsibility to protect exhibitors' IPR from being encroached. We also hope all the exhibitors to showcase their technologies, products and services at the show legally,'' Zheng said.

``We believe IPR disputes will not become a key problem for the forthcoming exhibition. But we are ready for it,'' the spokeswoman said.

Local insiders said the five-day event will surely provide a platform for the world's textile industry to display new technology progress and development.

About 1,400 enterprises from more than 30 countries and regions will display their products at an area of 126,500 square meters.

The European Textile Machinery Manufacturing Commission consisting of the associations from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain will lead enterprises to the exhibition, said Commission Secretary General Maria Avery.

German firms cover an area of 9,100 square meters and Italian enterprises use an area of 7,200 square meters, followed by Switzerland at 5,100 square meters, said Avery.

``China with a great potential of growth is a very important market to us,'' she said.

Those European enterprises will make every effort to display their various sales techniques as a means to exchange with their Chinese counterparts, Avery said.

China's imports and exports of textile machinery amounted to $2.65 billion in the first five months of this year, up 4.67 per cent over the same period last year.

Imports came mainly from Germany, Japan, Italy and Switzerland, while exports went to 144 countries such as India, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey.

Shanghai has led the nation in developing textile and garment machinery, said Gao Yong, vice president of China Textile Industry Association. Fengjing Town close to Shanghai has signed trade and co-operation agreements with more than 10 Asian countries to develop the textile industry, Gao said.

It has also established strategic alliances with France, Germany, Japan and Italy, trying to become a production base of high quality cloth, he said.