BANGALORE: The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) is conducting the first South India garment fair to be held in Bangalore from 13 February to 15 February.
 
 
The objective of the fair is to provide all southern garment manufacturers, distributors and retailers a central convenient location at where they can choose from a large variety of fabrics, designs and accessories and place buying orders accordingly. The Fair will be held at the Komarangala Indoor Stadium, and will present a large range of attractive offerings from several leading national and south based garment manufacturers including well known names such as Zodiac, Madura and Weekender.
 
 
The Southern garment manufacturing centers such as Tirupur, Chennai and Hyderabad have already become a major contributor to the readymade garment industry with exports of around Rs. 40000 million, while giving employment to almost 300,000 laborers comprising mostly of women from the weaker sections of society. World brand leaders and also top national brands have opened buying offices in Bangalore with many of them adding manufacturing and marketing facilities to keep pace with rapid expansion of this industry.
 
 
Says CMAI's regional committee chairman Satish Mahajan, "While Bangalore has world class manufacturing facilities and the capacity to double the employment opportunities in the next five years, its growth is slowed by poor labor reforms and high input costs such as taxes on raw materials which make the products more expensive compared to competing neighboring countries such as China, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The first evening of the fair will also bring to Bangalore a very special Fashion Show at the Taj Westend where attractive models will showcase select innovative garment designs of 12 leading brands.