Singapore’s National Design Centre to encourage innovation in retail

Singapore’s National Design Centre (NDC) officially opened this month, opening up opportunities for the design industry in Singapore. The DesignSingapore Council said they are focusing on supporting the food, retail and infocomm services sectors over the next three years.

“Singapore possesses the makings of a sophisticated regional service hub. Design helps businesses understand the behavior and needs of customers, and develop service innovations that will enable them to better serve customers, while allowing them to take their business to a new level,” said Jeffrey Ho, Executive Director, DesignSingapore Council.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam officially opened the NDC on 12 March, saying more Singapore companies are using design to compete and command a premium in international markets. “We have to give this a further push in the coming years,” he said.

Tharman disclosed that the design sector in the country posted an annual growth of more than 9 percent in the last 10 years. The DesignSingapore Council has played an important role in supporting the industry’s growth.

The DesignSingapore Council is now working with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and SPRING Singapore to develop the IDA Labs@NDC and Prototyping Lab@NDC that will give designers, enterprises and even members of the public access to equipment to build prototypes, test-bed new ideas, and thus speed up the development of new products and services.

Countries: Singapore
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