It was a display booth that looked different from all the others at a recent textile fair in Fujian province. For, Wang Yanzhu had earmarked about half of the space in his booth to a Taiwanese fabric producer with whom he hoped to forge a close partnership very soon.

"If it were not for the financial crisis, Tex-Ray Industrial Co (the Taiwanese firm which has over 30 years of experience in producing high-end fabric) would not have been so determined to set up strategic partnerships with garment producers on the mainland. We are now one of their largest clients," said Wang, whose company, Gaiqi Group, is one of the largest producers of T-shirts on the mainland.

Tex-Ray had just sent several of its staff members to join Gaiqi's management team and the two companies also planned to hold stakes in each other in the near future, Wang, who is Gaiqi's president, said.