Haiyuan, an inland county in northwestern China, and Nigeria, a country along the western coast of Africa, had few common points in history. But now an increasing number of clothes sold in Nigeria carry the label “made in Haiyuan,” a sign that Ningxia has now successfully opened itself to Africa.

“Our products have ‘gone out,’ but we are not a local company,” Ma Hongxiong, General Manager of Ningxia Buhala Ethnic Fashion Co. Ltd said. As the largest producer of Muslim clothing in Ningxia, the company is a result of Ningxia’s investment attraction efforts.

In recent years, young and able-bodied men in Haiyuan have left home to work elsewhere and women remained to take care of their families. These women could not find a job nearby due to a lack of enterprises locally.

When the China-Arab Expo took place in September 2013, Han A Yi Cao, Board Chairman of Qinghai Yijia Ethnic Fashion Company Ltd, was fascinated by the exquisite embroidery at Haiyuan Pavilion. The general manager had had plans to take advantage of the expo as a platform to further expand his business in Arabian markets, so he contacted the Haiyuan county government. The two sides reached an agreement immediately to establish the Ningxia Buhala Ethnic Fashion Company Ltd and the company became operational in December of the same year. Now over 400 local women are working in the company.

Muslims live across the world, generating a huge demand for Islamic clothing and articles such as caps and robes. Ningxia Buhala produces five million Muslim caps and 800,000 robes annually and these products are exported to faraway countries like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Featuring good quality and low prices, they are very popular among Muslims of different countries.

“At present the company uses computers to do the embroidery and the wholesale price of a hat is as low as three yuan,” Ma said. By the end of 2017 when the third-phase project is completed, the company will be able to provide jobs for more than 2000 local women and its annual production will rise to 10 million caps and 10 million robes. Meanwhile, Haiyuan’s manual embroidery will be promoted on a large scale. By that time, the wholesale price of a Muslim hat with Haiyuan’s traditional embroidery will skyrocket to thirty yuan. Only by doing so, can Haiyuan’s exquisite embroidery craftsmanship generate unusual economic returns overseas.