BANDUNG, Indonesia: The Sarawak government welcomes the involvement of the private sectors from Sarawak and Indonesia to work together in the development of the furniture industry, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said here yesterday.
“We have huge markets and together we can pool our resources to produce furniture and create demand for furniture not only in Indonesia and Malaysia but for the ASEAN communities,” he said before witnessing the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) and Institute Technology of Bandung (ITB).
Awang Tengah, who is also the Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources as well as Minister for Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, said ASEAN had a population of 640 million people and so it is a huge market for both regions to explore and tap.
Therefore Sarawak and Indonesia with their many resources should work together to become the producer not only for ASEAN but also for the global market, he advised.
The Deputy Chief Minister explained that the furniture industry in Sarawak remained small and in its infancy stage but with the Sarawak government implementing its timber transformation plan it would help transform the current timber industry structure from heavily depending on primary and secondary based industry to tertiary industry focusing on development of furniture and value added industry.
He said in 2017, Sarawak total export of timber and timber products was recorded at RM6.13 billion of which about RM46.7 million was furniture and its components.
He acknowledged that Indonesia was very advanced in its furniture industry and its products had successfully penetrated the global market due to their creativity.
Currently, he said, STIDC was collaborating with UNIMAS the pool of young designers programme (POYOD) to produce young talented furniture designers.
Besides that, STIDC has also collaborated with Samling Housing Products Sdn.Bhd. for a one year attachment training of the first group of POYOD since January 2018.
Later he witnessed the signing of the MoA between STIDC and Institute Technology of Bandung (ITB).
Signing on behalf of STIDC was its General Manager Hashim Bojet while ITB was represented by its Dean of Faculty of Arts and Design Dr. Imam Santosa.
The MoA will pave the way for enhance POYOD training programme to produce young designers between STIDC and ITB.
Later Awang Tengah paid a courtesy call on representative of the Governor of Bandung Dr Dani Ramdan at his office at Jawa Barat near here.
Present at the ceremony were Assistant Minister for Industrial Development Malcolm Mussen Lamoh; Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia in Kuching Bapak Yonny Tri Prayatino; Rector of ITB, Prof. Dr Kadarsah Suryadi; Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Industrial Development Datu Liaw Soon Eng; President of Sarawak Business Federation Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Datuk Abang Openg; state assemblymen Ripin Lamat, Aidel Lariwoo, Shafiee Ahmad and Ir. Christopher Gira.
