The Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) has announced plans to explore partnerships with Malaysian companies as part of its global expansion plans.
TDRI’s president Chang Chi-Yi shared that TDRI is actively reaching out to local Malaysian organisations and businesses to forge partnerships by introducing Taiwanese design abilities.
“With TDRI’s ultimate goal to create industry leaders out of businesses and to make Taiwan the center for high-end manufacturing and a hub for high-tech R&D, we want to drive industrial design and innovation through design power, and facilitate applications in various areas to give rise to high value-added design knowledge and applications,” Chang said.
“We recently hosted the Taiwan x Malaysia Business Matching Session, an initiative to bridge the communication gap between businesses and design while contributing to the local economy and cultural growth.
We hope our collaboration with Malaysia will further strengthen our bilateral relationship and bring more opportunities to both Malaysians and Taiwanese,” Chang expressed.
Currently, Taiwanese design companies are collaborating with Malaysian businesses to upgrade local products. Malaysian manufacturers incorporating design ideas from Taiwan include playground equipment provider Reka Setia, bottle manufacturer Relax, and dried fruit product manufacturer Jia-Xin Food.
As part of the transition from Taiwan Design Center (TDC) to TDRI, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has increased TDRI’s 2020 budget. With this increase, TDRI will capitalise on Taiwan’s strengths in design to drive industrial development and overall economic growth.
Taiwan’s MOEA expressed the three main goals of the TDRI: to increase the influence of design through cross-discipline collaboration, to launch a design innovation platform for young talents, and to grow the institute into a high-end research and manufacturing center.
