'Made in China' for London Olympics

DALIAN -- Workers are busy working in front of sewing machines in a manufacturing workshop in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian as the 2012 London Olympics approaches.

Making uniforms for this year's US Olympic athletes, Dayang Group Co Ltd has encountered controversy following complaints from a group of US lawmakers, led by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who chided the US Olympic Committee for not providing US Olympians with domestically produced uniforms last week.

"I think they should take all the outfits, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over," Reid said.

Li Guilian, president of the Dayang Group, said the group had acctually produced more than 3,000 formal outfits for the US delegation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Ralph Lauren, a renowned US fashion designer, spoke highly of the quality of clothes made by the Dayang Group, adding that their quality persuaded him to work with the company again this year.

"About 80 percent of our products are targeted at overseas markets," said Zhi Yong, an employee with the Dayang Group, adding that the company exports 5 million suits each year.

"The Dayang Group has long-term strategic cooperation with overseas customers. This recent political event will not affect the development of the company, but highlight made-in-China products and our brand," said Li.

Several enterprises in East China's Zhejiang province have also been rushing to churn out products for the London Olympics.

Lu Zhuyuan, general manager of a local flag manufacturing company, said his company has made more than 4,000 flags for this year's event.

"Two out of every ten flags flying over the London Olympics are made by our company," said Lu.

Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institution under the Ministry of Commerce, said "made in China" represents an increasing advantage in terms of price competition, which in turn can help to maintain a stable foreign trade environment.

Relying on its huge domestic market, China has the advantage of a stable macroeconomic environment and market initiative in the global economy, Mei added.

"As energy prices drop, lost manufacturing orders are likely to return to China," Mei said.

Statistics show that in the first half of this year, Yiwu in Zhejiang, China's largest small commodity wholesale market, did an export of $34.28 million to Britain, up 17.86 percent year-on-year.