New Vision for Fashion & Textile Industry

KOFOTI hosts ceremony to celebrate 25th Textile Day with declaration of new strategy for industry's future growth

The 25th Textile Day attracted a pack of people from the textile industry and the government to the Grand InterContinental Hotel Ballroom for a ceremony on Nov. 11 to celebrate the occasion, hosted by the Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI).
During the ceremony, a vision to make Korea's textile fashion industry fourth ranked in the world by 2020 and a fashion show staged by top designer Lee Sang-bong with a slew of dignitaries led by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, numerous legislators, fashion industry leaders and others totaling 500.
Prime Minister Kim said in his congratulatory speech that the fashion and textile industry has been playing a key role in the nation's economic progress and making itself known globally and is thus being called on to continue its upward momentum as a key future growth engine for the national economy.
KOFOTI Chairman Ro Hee-chan said in his commemorative speech that the fashion and textile industry has become one that the country cannot do without in making its economic progress sustainable, as it has diverse areas to tap into for further development such as nano, environmental, smart and super textiles, to make Korean fashion brands known globally with a presence in such fashion centers as New York, Paris and Rome under the new vision for the industry.
A total of 160 people in the industry and related areas were awarded medals and citations for their contribution to the growth of the industry in Korea, including three who received gold medals and three were given Presidential citations.
Vice Chairman Lee Sang-yoon of Hyosung Corp. clinched the Industrial Merit Gold Medal as a model manager of a textile company for over three decades. Chairman Kim Gui-yol of Superior Co. won the Industrial Merit Silver Medal as an exemplary manager of a fashion firm. President Lee Kyu-sam of Myungshin Textile Co. got the Industrial Merit Bronze Medal for his outstanding service to the textile industry for nearly four decades.
Sideline events included the G-Knit Show on Nov. 11-12 to announce new fashion materials developed at four clusters under the title "Fashion to Function & Function to Fashion." Two seminars were also held to display the fashion trends and new textile materials for the fashion and textile industry to look at with the titles "2012 F/W General Trend Seminar" and "2013 S/S Global Material Trend Seminar."
On Nov. 5, people in the fashion and textile industry went for a mountain hike with famed mountain climber Huh Young-ho at North Han Mountain near Seoul with over 700 hikers participating.
In the meantime, to train personnel in the textile and fashion industry, a scholarship foundation was set up and the KOFOTI Scholarship Foundation name board was hung in a ceremony on Nov. 11.
The industry is being turned around as a new growth engine for the Korean economy with a high value-added portion from the development of new textile materials technologies through cooperation among different textile materials sectors including nano, super, smart, and environmentally friendly textiles, now that the industry's upgraded competitive edge has been leading to higher productivity and increased exports with rising investments.
The ceremony has been an occasion to unite the fashion and textile industry in its resolve to becoming a new growth engine industry for the future.
KOFOTI was founded in 1967 to contribute to the long-term development of the textile industry as well as the advancement of the national economy. The Korean textile industry has been faithfully fulfilling its roles as a key national industry, achieving considerable growth to account for 41 percent of total exports in 1971. The industry made a remarkable achievement in 1987 when it became the first in Korea to record exports of $10 billion. However, the Korean textile industry has recently been experiencing much difficulty, owing to the rapid advancement of developing countries and heightened competition in the global textile market, attributable to the end of the quota system. nw

)left) KOFOTI Chairman Ro Hee-chan speaks at the gathering to celebrate the 25th Textile Day at InterContinental Hotel Ballroom in southern Seoul on Nov.11. A view of a fashion show at the anniversary event.
Photos on courtesy of KOFOTI