Coimbatore: The 15th edition of India knit fair, for autumn-winter, mid-summer collection, 2003 would be held at Tirupur near Coimbatore from October 9.

The three-day fair would be a platform to exporters, who can adore to match with international standards of quality, diversify their fabric base and accelerate themselves towards switching over to manufacturing products with innovative designs at a competitive price, fair chairman Shaktivel told at Tirupur on September 25 night.

Shaktivel said that knitwear industry in Tirupur had set for itself the task of growing annually at 15 to 20 per cent so as to meet the ever-increasing global and domestic demand for knitwear, especially with the opening of the economy and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) implementation.

With exports growing by 11 per cent of GDP in Dollar terms and becoming one of the corner stones of the country's economic planning and growth over the next decade, knitwear exporters were preparing themselves in the last five years to face post 2005, Shaktivel said.

New opportunities for capturing the global market had become more accessible through this fair, as several initiatives for modernisation and investment for further growth had begun to create the necessary condition to achieve the objective of the fair, he said.

A good number of overseas buyers (buying houses) and agents had already confirmed their visits to the fair, to be inaugurated by Union textile secretary S B Mohapatra, Shaktivel said.

PTI