Kuala Lumpur, 18 November 2020 - The Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) has announced plans to explore partnerships with Malaysian companies as part of its global expansion plans.

As most of the world looks to Taiwan as a manufacturer, TDRI aims to change that viewpoint to be known for its design industry. TDRI’s president Chang Chi-Yi shared that TDRI is actively reaching out to local Malaysian organizations 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,” said Chang.

“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,” Chang continued. “We hope our collaboration with Malaysia will further strengthen our bilateral relationship and bring more opportunities to both Malaysians and Taiwanese.”

In recent years, Taiwan has taken initiatives to focus on strengthening the design connection with Malaysia, including hosting the first Golden Pin Salon in Malaysia in 2017. This event was funded by Taiwan's longest-running international design award, the TDRI-established Golden Pin Design Award that celebrates talented designers from around the world.

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 capitalize on Taiwan’s strengths in design to drive industrial development and the 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.

Besides its global programs, TDRI constantly promotes design locally through various initiatives including a collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Taiwan to introduce the “Campus Aesthetics Transformation“ initiative to nurture aesthetics from a young age, and a partnership with the Directorate General of Highways to embed design concept into highway aesthetics to create the most beautiful bus route in Taiwan.

With its vision is to improve Taiwan’s competitive edge on the global stage, TDRI is fostering sustainable social and industrial development, and enhancing its people’s lifestyle through design-driven innovation.

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