Representatives of five Mongolian cashmere export companies that have received assistance from the
U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve their business skills, are visiting New York City March
12-13 to showcase their products for some of the United States' most influential clothiers and garment distributors.
   
The showcase is the result of assistance provided through USAID's economic policy reform project which began in Mongolia in 2003 to promote energy reform, public education, policy analysis and business competitiveness, the sector under which the cashmere program falls.
   
"If this program is successful, the Mongolian cashmere industry will grow, instead of merely surviving. This effort is not only about trade expansion, but poverty reduction as well," said Cory Johnston,USAID/Mongolia's project development officer.
   
The USAID project, began to focus on cashmere in 2005, providing technical assistance to link local companies to buyers in major markets and educating those companies about how to produce cashmere goods for discriminating buyers. USAID assistance also focused on marketing and
promotions, such as the New York trade event.
   
The five companies have joined under one banner -- the Mongolian Fibermark Society -- to organize the private trade event. There they will display sweaters, scarves, shawls and blankets they have designed and produced. Mongolia produces about 25 percent of the world's raw cashmere and about 75,000 families depend on the industry for their livelihoods.
   
For more information about USAID's programs in Mongolia, visit our web site at http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/countries/mongolia/