9 Apr 2009

US garment group keen to revive CNMI's garment industry

11:43 am on 9 April 2009

Neo Fashion Incorporated, a defunct garment factory in San Antonio, in the United States, is working on a plan to revive the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island's once billion-dollar garment industry on a smaller scale.

The company is working to get the military into ordering specialty garments manufactured on Saipan.

Neo Fashion consultant Paul Zak says it's not easy to convince the U.S. military to look at Saipan's garment capabilities.

But he says now the samples have been made the military is testing it.

Saipan's garment industry peaked at over one billion US dollars in annual sales from 1998 to 2000, making clothes for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Gap, Levi's, Polo Ralph Lauren, and others.