China has set up a special fund using revenues from textile export tariffs to help improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the country's textile industry.
The 1.36 billion-yuan fund will be used to boost technical innovations in production, develop new fibers and help make the industry more environmentally friendly and energy efficient, says Zhang Li, an official with the Bureau of Economic Operation under the National Development and Reform Commission.
The government established the fund out of concern that the textile industry faces increasing international trade disputes and urgently needs to change its pattern of growth, says Zhang.
The official noted that the printing and dyeing of fabrics makes the industry the second largest consumer of water and the sixth largest producer of wastewater, only 7 percent of which is recycled.
