Traditional industry in Taizhou

Top executives from plastics and industrial design sectors have expressed their determination to use the power of design to rejuvenate traditional industries in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

The executives expressed their resolve while sharing their experiences at a forum at the end of August.

The moulding industry is a typical traditional industry in Taizhou's Huangyan district. The traditional low-end and low-valued industry has been given a new lease of life through the construction of a production base, introduction of talents and close connecting with other related design industries.

Throughput value of the design sector in the area has risen from 35 million yuan since the base was built in 2012 to 150 million yuan ($23 million) in 2016, an average annual increase of 71 percent.

Zhu Kun, manager of Starway international home-living company, displayed an acrylic plastic chair saying, "It is the first chair made by us, which is an imitation of products from other countries. It didn't sell well at foreign market."

"We realized that we need innovation to help crack more foreign markets," said Yu Hui, manager of Starway's research and development department.

Starway invited a famous designer, Stefano Giovannoni from Italy to build a home-living designer brand named "Qeeboo". They have produced 18 designer works so far.

"Good designs bring us profits," said Yu, noting that the annual output value of Starway reached 310 million yuan in 2016, an annual growth rate of over 25 percent.

A number of enterprises in Huangyan have been evolving with goods designs as the leading direction.

There are more than 400 design professionals at the moulding industrial design base in Huangyan. Workshops jointly built with universities help deepen the relation among industries and research institutes through seminars, design competitions and matchmaking events.

As one of Zhejiang's first group of 12 provincial demonstration bases for characteristic industrial design, Huangyan industrial design base attaches additional value to the moulding industry.

"Huangyan industrial design base is striving to develop a public service platform, which will provide all-round services for enterprises," said Zheng Jianguang, president of economy and information technology bureau of the district.