15th March, Bangkok - Organiser of the Bangkok Fashion Week 2006, plans to use the "trade fair" strategy to tap the demand for the country's fashion goods from international buyers, given that a large number of operators from the textile and garment, jewellery and accessories, and leather and footwear sectors representing around 130 brands will participate in this year's event.

Pramode Vidhyasuk, Director of Bangkok Fashion City Project, said, "The trade fair is one of the main activities to be held at the Bangkok Fashion Week 2006 (BFW'06). There are 122 brands joining the fair this year, comprising 63 brands from the textile and garment industry, 19 footwear and leather, 20 jewellery and accessories brands and 20 as creations by new fashion graduates. It is expected that there are around 20 per cent more buyers this year."



" The trade fair plays an important part in creating business opportunities for Thai operators, producers includes fashion designers. Following our great success in BFW'05, Thai brands have become more internationally recognize. Thai designers now have the capacity to achieve a real global presence. BFW'06 is great opportunity to showcase our talented designers in a Thai arena. I believe that there are not less than one billion baht spending through purchase orders at this event while revenue from exports is expected to increase by 20 per cent from that of the previous year. This help boost the three industries' growth by some 20 per cent in 2006," Pramode said.

This year's event display an Autumn/Winter 2006 collection targeting both local and international members of the fashion community, as well as buyers and media, both from Asia and Europe such as Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and France. The project cr ganiser is coll2torating with the Ministry if Foreign Affairs to promote the event among international foreign buyers in a bid to seek new market opportunities and expand the market base for Thai fashion goods.



Fashion buyers, both local and international, will be exclusively invited to join the trade fair on 15-16 March, while the retail buyers and general public will be allowed to join the fair on 17-19 March, when they will be offered premium-quality fashion goods at discount rates.

According to the department of export promotion's report, the overall textile and garment exports in the first 10 months of 2005 increased by 5.2 per cent from that of the same period of 2004 to $ 5.55 billion, The export of footwear and leather products in the first 11 months of 2005 increased by 8 per cent to $1.43 billion comparing to the same period of 2004. While the exports of the jewellery and accessory in the first 10 month of 2005 rose by 21 per cent to $ 2.97 billion when compared with the same period of 2004.