New body for interior industry partners

NEW MERGER: The Malaysian Interior Industry Partners Association (MIIP) hopes to play a significant role in the future development of the interior industryto

The proverbial saying resonating with the idea that “great minds think alike” takes on fresh significance, especially when viewed from the historic new developments shaping the entire interior industry. Even as the interior designers celebrated the official launch of a new entity, a new body was also formed representing a group of interior industry partners.

Officially known as the Malaysian Interior Industry Partners Association (MIIP), the body is led by Vincent Lim, its President.

“MIIP was officially formed and received the approval from the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on 10 December 2010,” shares Lim, who is also the President of CIS Network Sdn Bhd.

“The association hopes to promote awareness of the roles MIIP will play in the successful completion of interior fit-out works while aiming to be the platform for the interaction between the association and other professional bodies.

“Other objectives include liaising with the relevant government bodies on issues pertaining to the growth and development of the interior industry while allowing for interaction and discourse amongst the association members. It will also enable them to meet on matters relating to work practices, rules and regulations, design forums and product launches. MIIP also strives to actively work on gaining professional recognition for its members,” he adds.

His views were echoed by Tan Goo Can, Vice-President of MIIP.

“Basically, this is the voice to promote awareness of the role of interior industry partners in enabling the successful completion of interior designs of commercial projects including interior fit-out works. We also want to have a platform to interact with interior designers and other built professionals for business and social networking.

“It’s definitely better for the development of professionalism in the industry and we hope that we can be part of the process. At this side of the table, we are the ones that execute the work while the interior designers are the ones who design the projects. There are many issues ranging from fairness to competitiveness of pricing and we need both sides to sit down to constantly have a dialogue.”

“MIIP is actually the continuation of the previous industry partner body of Institut Perekabentuk Dalaman Malaysia (IPDM). Over the past ten years, we were part of the institute functioning as industry partners providing support in functions and events besides other networking and social events, as well as related industry dialogues,” reiterates Tan who is also the Managing Director of Can.I Interior Fit-Out Sdn Bhd.

Lim shares that the objective for the first year is to recruit more industry partners to join MIIP by means of a recruitment drive. His aim is also for the organisation to have a better collaboration with other associations in the building sector.

Viewing the merger as “positive for the industry”, both Lim and Tan believe that the interior design sector also needs to know about the ongoing progress in the interior builders industry that also includes new product developments.

“We look forward to the new synergy and I believe in the future, the green eco movement or green design is the big thing coming to the interior industry . Hence, MIIP hopes to play a contributing part in this direction in terms of the final product image that the designer intends to create. We look forward to a better collaboration between MIIP and other built professionals,” says Lim.

Tan adds that there is a need for both industries to remain connected.

“There’s a two-way synergy. Nowadays, there’s a lot of new products and technology available worldwide especially in Europe and the United States. As entrepreneurs, we will bring these in but without the interior designers specifying for them, they will be of no use. In this sense, the final products cannot be brought to the higher level,” he says.

In summation, Lim congratulates the Malaysian Institute of Interior Designers (MIID) on its new formation saying that it is “good for the overall interior industry as a whole”.
Membership to MIIP is open to interior fit-out contractors, traders, suppliers, manufacturers and service providers of the interior industry.

For more information, log on to www.miipa.org

Tan Goo Can, Vice-President of MIIP (left) standing beside MIIP President Vincent Lim.

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