SHANGHAI – German textile machinery technology can play a major role in China's and other countries' efforts to make the environment cleaner and increase the energy efficiency of the textile industry – that was the message of the VDMA, the German textile machinery association at the opening of the recent ITMA ASIA + CITME 2016 conference, Asia's trade fair dedicated to textile machinery. The VDMA said that with its products and services, VDMA member companies have already taken steps towards Industrie 4.0, in China more commonly referred to as 'intelligent manufacturing'.