KUCHING (March 23): Sarawak aims to nurture and to produce young professional furniture entrepreneurs under the young entrepreneur development programme to realise the government’s aspirations to achieve RM4 billion in export earnings from the furniture sector by 2030.
Plans are also in the pipeline to establish furniture parks here in Kuching and Tanjung Manis through collaboration with industry players, said Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) in a statement issued today in conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebration.
It said the furniture parks have the potential to generate RM500 million in investment.
A furniture testing lab is also under construction at Kota Samarahan to provide services to local furniture manufacturers and to ensure compliance with global market standards for both local and export markets.
These initiatives are poised to chart a new dimension to help SMEs including the Bumiputera furniture vendors scale new heights and to penetrate export markets.
Furniture manufacturing is the fastest growing sub-sector within the wood-based industry in Malaysia.
Malaysia was ranked the world’s 12th largest exporter and recognised as a producer of high-quality wooden furniture in 2020.
Most of the furniture manufacturing activities are in Johor, Selangor and Perak.
Presently, 99 per cent of furniture manufacturers registered with Sarawak Furniture Industry Association (SFIA) are small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Sarawak is endowed with rich timber resources and is among the largest suppliers of semi-finished tropical timber products in the world.
Furniture manufacturing, however, is mostly cottage industry, labour-oriented and home-based for the domestic market.
The number of medium-sized manufacturers with modern production technology is relatively low.
“The local furniture manufacturers are struggling with issues such as shortage of raw materials and skilled manpower besides difficulty in securing financing for business expansion,” said STIDC, quoting SFIA.
Most upstream timber producers are export-oriented while furniture component parts have to be imported.
Under the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030), the furniture industry was identified as one of the important economic sectors to drive Sarawak to a developed state by generating RM4 billion in export revenue by 2030.
Towards that end, various initiatives were identified including the SME and young entrepreneur development programmes to ensure competitive and world-class furniture entrepreneurs.
The SME development programme aims to nurture 200 SMEs and 65 furniture vendors by 2030 to help at least 30 SMEs and five Bumiputera vendors become global market players.
Source: https://www.theborneopost.com/2023/03/23/swak-looking-at-young-professionals-to-achieve-rm4-bln-in-export-earnings-from-furniture-by-2030/