IN THIS ISSUE

- "LEAD"ing the Singapore Furniture Industry to Greater Heights
- IFFS/AFS 2006 Achieves Record Deals, Exhibitor & Visitor Count
- Internationally Renowned Designers on "Staying Relevant " In The Competitive World Market
- Local Design Talents to Get Career Boost
- SFIC Welcomes New Honorary Advisor, Dr. Balaji Sadasivan
- Furniture Design Award (FDA) 2006 Winners
- Furniture Learning Institute Offers New Enriching Pivot Courses for Both Executive & Management Level
- HTL Managing Director Wins Top Business Accolade
- Taking the Furniture Industry to a Whole New Level
- Are You Facing Your Brutal Facts
- Sitra Holdings Achieves EDB's Regional HQ Award
- World Furniture Outlook 2006
- Calendar of Events

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"LEAD"ing the Singapore Furniture Industry to Greater Heights

Officiating at the opening of the lnternational Furniture Fair Singapore 2006 / 23rd ASEAN Furniture Show, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports and Second Minister for Trade & Industry, announced that the SFlC will be embarking on a series of projects under the government-led Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) programme to further enhance Singapore's position as an international furniture hub. The LEAD programme was launched last May by SPRING Singapore and IE Singapore to partner industry associations to enhance industry and enterprise competitiveness. These projects, estimated to cost about S$16 million, will give the industry a strong shot in the arm over the next three years. SFIC's growth plan will focus on three key areas - nurture a high value-added workforce, develop more design-centric companies, and create a synergised industry network to capture a bigger global market share.

"The strategic yet specific projects to be supported under the LEAD programme will help to establish Singapore as an international furniture marketing and design centre. SPRING will continue to work closely with the SFlC to grow the sector", said Mr Loh Khum Yean, Chief Executive of SPRING Singapore.

IE Singapore, likewise, also pledged that it will continue to work closely with the SFlC and industry players to build up a pool of leading Singapore furniture MNCs, help them to extend their global reach, and at the same time, attract more overseas buyers to Singapore.

Projects to be undertaken by the SFlC under the LEAD programme include:

Design excellence as competitive edge
The SFlC aims to grow the number of design-centric local furniture companies by about 30 per cent in three years through the Furniture Design Award (FDA), designer codevelopment and design entrepreneur development programmes. Since 1993, the FDA has helped to nurture Singapore's budding design talents and seen the participation of overseas furniture designers as well. The SFlC intends to further raise the profile and standard of the competition. Incentives will also be provided for local furniture companies to employ winning designers, so that they can be mentored on commercialising their designs.

Under the designer co-development programme, the SFlC will leverage on the annual FDA to identify five outstanding design young talents each year and reward them with a 12-month employment contract with some of Singapore's leading furniture companies. The SFlC will co-fund 70% of the young designers' payroll while they are being placed on a meaningful mentoring programme that leads to the commercial