According to Italy's "24 hours Sun" report, the Italy textile and Garment Association, the largest industry organization in Italy's textile and garment industry, announced at its annual meeting that the association was officially renamed the Italy Textile Fashion Federation (Smi) and announced that the Federation would open a representative office in Shanghai, China.

The Federation opened a representative office in Shanghai, and was assisted by the Ministry of international trade and the Italy Foreign Trade Commission of Italy, as well as the financial support from the United Bank of St Paul.

Mr. Zenia, chairman of the Federation, said that the main task of the Shanghai representative office is to supervise the market, provide technical support for Italy enterprises, monitor counterfeit products, and promote trade exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Italian enterprises.

It is reported that in 2007, the turnover of Italy's textile fashion industry reached 54 billion 600 million euros, an increase of 3.3% over the same period last year.

Among them, external exports increased by 5%, which is the main force to stimulate the recovery of the industry. The export products are mainly clothing, shoes and sweaters.