National handlooms exhibition next week

Irangika Range

COLOMBO: The Textile Industry Development Ministry and the Department of Textiles will organise "Ransalu" the National Handloom Textile exhibition from December 19 to 21 at the BMICH.

Minister Jayatissa Ranaweera told the Daily News that the Government has identified developing the handloom industry as a priority, to generate more employment and to produce handloom fabrics to meet the local demand as much as possible.

The major objectives of the exhibition are to promote handloom products among Sri Lankans as a national product while creating a forum for the handloom industry of Sri Lanka to showcase their products to public. It has also focused on evaluating the talents of the Sri Lankan weavers while providing an opportunity to meet manufacturers and consumers under one roof. "This would expose handloom products to international buyers."

Minister Jayatissa said the exhibition will have a logo giving a traditional touch for handloom textiles. The exhibition also helps the weavers and producers to promote their products under the brand name "Ransalu".

This will fill a long felt need in this sphere. It is intended to further develop the logo and the brand name in consultation with the experts in the industry.

With the objective of promoting handloom textile, the Ministry floated number of projects, during the year to introduce new designs, colour combinations and new product, based handlooms. It is time for handloom textile producers take note of emerging trends in the handloom textile sector to cope up with new designs and new techniques.

In order to achieve this target, a special exhibition centre dedicated for fashion design will be opened with the assistance of Department of Textile and Clothing Technology and the Department of Architecture at the Moratuwa University.

A lecture series will be organised aiming at the textile producers and weavers to prepare them for market challenges. The exhibition comprising 75 trade stalls would provide a good opportunity for consumers to buy handloom products.