KUCHING, March 7: Fifteen Sarawak Young Designers (SayD’SignersSarawak) participants who have completed their two-year training programme on furniture design have joined an incubator programme held by Saradec Management Sdn Bhd (Saradec).
The incubator programme is a talent development programme developed by Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) to groom and allow SayD’SignersSarawak participants to develop their entrepreneurship skills as a pathway towards a career in furniture design.
The first module was conducted from October to December last year.
Meanwhile, the second module started in January this year and will run until September, with a specially customised SayD’SignersSarawak Link & Match (SLIM) programme, developed and implemented by Saradec in collaboration with Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Sarawak Furniture Industries Association (SFIA), and STIDC Vendor.
Twelve furniture manufacturing companies took part in the SLIM programme, where each company is matched with one or two SayD’SignersSarawak participants to develop creative designs for the company’s products.
The SLIM programme’s framework, developed especially for Saradec by ITB, was led by Dr Imam Santosa, engaged by Saradec as a consultant.
The programme has meetings twice a week between the ITB team of supervisors, SayD’SignersSarawak participants, and the companies.
To date, there have been 14 engagement meetings since its commencement.
STIDC general manager Datuk Hashim Bojet said the programme would prepare the designers to build their design business studio, which could eventually serve in the growth of the Sarawak furniture industry.
“This is in line with STIDC’s vision to boost the growth of the furniture industry as part of our turnaround industry plan to enable the State to achieve export earnings of RM6 billion worth of value-added products by 2030,” he said in a recent statement.
Meanwhile, Saradec chief executive officer Dayang Nena Abang Bruce stated that the outcome of this programme would be the production of 15 pieces of creatively designed furniture to be commercialised globally. — DayakDaily
