Dr. Alwin Wong (front L), director of Innovative Technology Research of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Feng Changhong, chief secretary of Shenzhen Industrial Design Profession Association, in a signing ceremony in Shenzhen. Courtesy of Shenzhen Industrial Design Profession Association

Cao Zhen

SHENZHEN Industrial Design Profession Association (SIDA) joined hands with Hong Kong Polytechnic University last week to launch a training project for Shenzhen designers.

The project, running 24 weeks, will focus on consumer products, furniture and electronic products design, according to SIDA. The cooperative project signing ceremony was held at the third Shenzhen-Hong Kong Culture and Creative Forum, where other plans on the cooperation between the two cities were also discussed.

Feng Changhong, deputy chairman and secretary general of SIDA, said Shenzhen-Hong Kong Design Center, featuring industrial research, training, database and services for design companies, will open in 2013 in Qianhai area, western Shenzhen.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Design Biennale will also be launched next year in Hong Kong. The biennale, which the two cities will take turns to host, will display cutting-edge products from the two cities.

According to Jerry Liu, director of Creative Hong Kong Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government, every year 50 advertisement graduates get a free one-year internship. Half of the cost is funded by the Hong Kong government.

“Both Shenzhen and Hong Kong set policies to promote design as a driving force in propelling the development of the two cities as creative cities,” said Chen Jinhai, director of the information office of the Shenzhen Municipal Government.

Shenzhen has always set cultural and creative industries as a core and strategic booming industry. According to Wang Xiaoming, director of Shenzhen Creative and Culture Center, there are 52,000 design companies and 65,000 staff members in Shenzhen. Last year, the added value of the city’s cultural and creative industries was 87.5 billion yuan (US$13.8 billion), 20.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

Since 2008, SIDA signed the strategic cooperation agreement with Hong Kong Design Center, holding a series of major design-related events in the two cities.