Italian Economic Diplomacy 21 April: breaking news from around the World

MALAYSIA – NEW MoU SIGNED BETWEEN THE MILAN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY AND THE SARAWAK TIMBER INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (STIDC).
 
Poli.design, the Milan Polytechnic’s institute for design, has signed a MoU with the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), an entity tasked with developing the timber industry in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
The aim of the MoU is to foster the development of the wood industry in Sarawak, both by collaborating in the research on the materials available in the state, which boasts over 2000 different species of wood, and through international education and skills-building projects for young designers from the State, who has started implementing training programmes in the field. In particular, Poli.design intends to support STIDC’s programmes through transfer of know-how and new training methodologies regarding the design of finished products, furniture, interiors, etc..
Sarawak also hopes that the MoU may increase its commercial presence in European markets, which until now has been rather limited; according to STIDC’s own sources, in fact, less than 1% of the State’s exports end up in Europe.
The MoU builds on the prior collaboration, in the design sector, with the University of Kuala Lumpur, which started in 2019 with the establishment of the MIDI – Malaysia Italy Design Institute, again with the support of the Polytechnic, confirming the Italian design sector’s endeavours to spearhead its international leadership in Malaysia as well.