On July 23, Dow announced the opening of a Customer Innovation Center (CIC) in Singapore, the fourth center in Asia Pacific following Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu in China. The strategic move will better position Dow to enhance innovation support for customers and partners in the Southeast Asia market.
“As a global innovation leader in materials science, Dow is committed to pioneering next-generation advanced materials solutions while enabling easy, enjoyable and effective customer interactions,” said Dr. Bob Maughon, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics and Hydrocarbons R&D Vice President. “We believe in the power of innovating with customers as a team -- this force of collaboration will enable us to gain more insights into our target markets and to leverage more expertise and resources to maximize the results of our innovation efforts.”
Ideally located in Singapore, one of the most prominent innovation hubs in Southeast Asia, the new Customer Innovation Center will be dedicated to the company’s focus on the consumer, food security and infrastructure markets. The Singapore Customer Innovation Center features state-of-the-art digital facilities to provide virtual presence of US/EU application and technology experts through video conferencing. The center will enable cross-business teams to better engage customers and value chain partners in Southeast Asia to maximize value creation and market-specific solutions.
“As an advocate for collaborative innovation, Dow is deeply engaged in working with key stakeholders including customers and partners to deliver game-changing solutions to address pain points of customers and end-users,” said Dr. Yao Weiguang, chief technology officer of Dow Asia Pacific. “Southeast Asia is a dynamic market. In order to capture the tremendous opportunities here, we must keep building on our leadership in collaborative innovation, while putting customers at the core of everything we do. The Singapore Customer Innovation Center will serve as the platform to help us achieve this imperative.”
“The opening of the Singapore Customer Innovation Center is an important milestone in Dow’s business growth and the implementation of our customer-centric strategy in Southeast Asia. It demonstrates our strong confidence in and long-term commitment to the region,” said Kenny Ogawa, Dow President, Southeast Asia. “The enhanced solution capabilities enabled by the center will help us meet the demands of the thriving market in a more competitive manner.”
Dow has a strong footprint in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia Pacific region – the commercial and innovation hub of Shanghai Dow Center, research facilities in Singapore, and world-class manufacturing sites in Map Ta Phut of Thailand, and Zhangjiagang of China. With these solid innovation and manufacturing capabilities, Dow is well-positioned to drive continuous growth in the region. In the Southeast Asia region, Dow operates in seven countries serving the more than 600-million population. Closely linked to Science and R&D, Dow also supports and invests in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and activities for the younger generation in many countries. Singapore, as the business hub for Dow in Southeast Asia, is also the technology test bed, and is positioned to drive significant growth opportunities in emerging markets to propel the company’s growth in Asia Pacific.
