While Malaysia?s textile and apparel industry may be facing fierce competition from low-cost suppliers in Asia and elsewhere, the country?s technical textile industry shows inclination towards tapping the export opportunities inherent in developed countries. Malaysia could build up a niche market in technical textiles in much the same way as the other high-cost suppliers such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Turkey have been doing. The exhibition stands of these high-cost suppliers received a steady stream of buyers from the developed markets for technical textiles and non-wovens at the just-concluded Techtextil and Texprocess 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany, for technical textiles and nonwovens.
The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) director based Frankfurt, S Sivasuriyamoorthy, says Malaysia had indeed made ?good strides? in the industry, particularly in the use of high technology. Indeed, Malaysian companies specialising in technology used for manufacturing technical textiles and nonwovens, have carved out a niche for themselves.