The new smart clothes that have a built-in MP3 player will hit the market at the end of this year.

The Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry said Wednesday that the government launched in August of 2004 joint research and development with domestic firms to produce smart clothes.

The ministry said that the smart clothes are made of textiles that can transmit digital signals and users can operate the built-in MP3 player by pushing buttons placed on the sleeves.

According to the ministry, the researchers and domestic clothing firms plan to release several other high-tech clothes including ones for health care that can sense climate and body temperature and help release or generate heat.

In addition, sports clothes are being developed to relay heart rate and other biological signals to a machine that monitors a person during exercise.

The global market for smart apparel is expected to reach 200-million dollars in 2008 and jump to seven-billion dollars by 2014 and the nation aims to take a market share of more than 20 percent.