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le machinery show in 2008. This first combined exhibition, “ITMA ASIA + CITME 2008” will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in Shanghai, PRC from 27 to 31 July 2008. The partners have agreed in principle to hold a combined ITMA ASIA + CITME exhibition every two years in Shanghai, and it is anticipated therefore that the second show will be held in 2010. CEMATEX launched its ITMA ASIA show in 2001, followed by a second show in partnership with JTMA (Japan Textile Machinery Association) in 2005, both of these being held in Singapore. CEMATEX is also the owner of the ITMA show which has been held in various European locations every 4 years since its launch back in 1951, the 15th edition taking place in Munich, Germany in September 2007. The CITME show (owned by CTMA) was launched in 1988 and has to date been held every two years in Beijing, PRC, the 10th edition being held there in October 2006. Mr Edward Roberts, President of CEMATEX, stated: “China’s textile industry has enjoyed a period of rapid growth and now has one third of the entire world textile production capacity. The country has become one of the largest buyers of textile machinery, which is one of the key reasons why CEMATEX has made the important decision to move ITMA ASIA from Singapore to China. The date in 2008 has been chosen in order to enable us to react as quickly as possible to the changing requirements of the Asian market. We have decided to work on this event with CTMA because they share our own objective of offering our exhibitors and their customers high quality cost effective exhibitions, and we are delighted that they will be our partner in these combined events”. The combined exhibition in 2008 will be organised by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Co Ltd, an exhibition management company owned by CTMA and CCPIT-Tex. The co-organiser will be Meeting Planners International Pte Ltd (MPI) of Singapore. MPI was the organiser of CEMATEX’s first two ITMA ASIA shows. Both of these organisations have first class experience in organising major textile machinery shows. Mr Gao Yong, President of CTMA announced : “I am very pleased that we shall hold this first combined show in Shanghai, and we and our partners are delighted to welcome ITMA ASIA to China. We strongly believe that our initiative will benefit the whole of the textile industry as well as the healthy development of the textile machinery industry”. Mr Zhang Yankai, Executive Vice Chairman of CCPIT-Tex emphasised : “The recent rapid growth in the Asian textile industry has led to the launch of a number of textile machinery shows of varying status in the region, but such shows have failed to meet the demands of the textile industry’s long term development. ITMA ASIA and CITME are different because these shows are owned by textile machinery associations and are therefore organised by the textile industry for the textile industry. We understand the needs of the industry, and the principal aim therefore is to offer a high quality and relevant show for exhibitors and customers alike, and finally to strive towards the upgrade of the whole industry’s science and technology level”. In a previous statement made in November 2005, CEMATEX, CTMA and JTMA announced that they had agreed to strengthen their cooperation in order to improve the quality of textile machinery exhibitions. In addition to this partnership, CEMATEX and JTMA will fully support the next CITME 2006 show and CTMA and JTMA will fully support the next ITMA show in 2007. Mr. Tetsuro Toyoda, Chairman of JTMA commented: “The members of JTMA have been successfully participating in CITME already for a long period, and had another success in the previous ITMA ASIA show through the partnership with CEMATEX. We strongly believe that the integration of these two exhibitions shall create great synergy, and will be beneficial both for customers and textile machine manufacturers”.