BANDUNG, Indonesia, Dec 11: Sarawak Government through STIDC is targeting 100 young furniture designers by 2030, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
“These young designers will help to spur the growth of the furniture industry in Sarawak tapping on the huge market potential globally,” Awang Tengah said at the graduation ceremony of the pioneer group of Sarawak students held at Institute Teknologi Bandung (ITB) here today.
Awang Tengah explained that the Pool of Young Designers Programme (Poyod) of Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) was part of a long-term strategic plan of STIDC and Sarawak Government to facilitate the transformation of the timber industry into a high value-added industry, especially in furniture, by 2030.
The Deputy Chief Minister said in 2018, the global furniture market was worth USD576 billion and is expected to increase further in future, supported by growing infrastructural investments and economic growth of various developing nations.
“Much of this growth is expected from Asian countries due to rapidly flourishing consumer market, rising disposal income, changing lifestyles, technological innovations and increasing smart city development worldwide,” he added.
Awang Tengah, who is also the Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development and Chairman of STIDC said, in this regard, Sarawak, Malaysia and Indonesia will need to work closely together to tap into its opportunity.
He congratulated the six pioneer young designers for successfully completing the one-year training programme and expressed his happiness on their progress and performance.
“They had shown improvement in the ability to connect themselves with designs and what ITB had given to Poyod had benefited them and this is just the beginning of Poyod’s roadmap,” he said.
Poyod is a two-year training program implemented by STIDC in collaboration with University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) for fresh graduate majoring in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts.
The first-year programme is the attachment training with the local furniture manufacturer in Sarawak while the second year training is the Attachment with Fakultas Seni Reka dan Desain (FSRD) ITB, for the advance training in furniture design.
The first intake of the six Unimas graduates was done in January 2018 with first year attachment training at Samling Housing Products Sdn Bhd, Miri.
This year, their second-year training programme with FSRD, ITB since January 2019, is to further enhanced their knowledge and skill in design and broaden their experience.
In October 2018, the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Agreement between ITB and STIDC, to mark the beginning of this training collaboration was held at the institute.
The students had also participated in the Sarawak Timber and SME Expo on 27-30 June 2019 in Kuching.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg officiated the graduation ceremony at the same venue.-DayakDaily
