ndustry in Douliou, Yunlin County, southern Taiwan yesterday in a bid to help the traditional business of the area reach NT$70 billion in annual revenue. Facing low-cost competition from Chinese and Southeast Asian makers, Taiwan's textile industry has gradually lost its edge, with export revenues falling to an annual US$10 billion in recent years, down from US$16.3 billion in the early 1990s, according to MOEA statistics.
"This 6,000-ping research institute will help upgrade the industry competitiveness of 2,800 textile manufacturers in central and southern Taiwan," Wu Ming-Ji, deputy director-general of the MOEA's Department of Industrial Technology, said in a statement issued via his office in Taipei.
The Yunlin institute is the first branch of the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), which is directed and sponsored by the department. Wu said that in its first year, the research lab will focus on four areas -- helping local textile businesses to form industry clusters and strategic alliances, developing new environmental protection technologies, creating new techniques to refine textile surfaces and providing other technical support.
The department estimated that the institute, by coordinating with the Free Port Zone in the area, could help textile makers in central and southern Taiwan to generate NT$70 billion in business income per year.
"These efforts will create new value for southern Taiwan's textile industry, in addition to generating enormous business opportunities," Wu noted.
Celia Chiang, an official of the institute, told CNA by phone from Douliou that the research projects will target product differentiation.
"To help move the industry away from the low-cost market, Taiwan's textile manufacturing will feature more industrial-use products and functional textiles," she said, adding that 40 textile companies and organizations signed an agreement at the Friday launch to cooperate on product development, manpower incubation and technology transfer.
"In addition, the TTRI Yunlin branch will offer these companies the industry information they need in order to explore their market potential," Chiang said.
