Dr Chan, Talib to shape up tourism industry

KUCHING: Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud wants to see a more systematic approach to tourism particularly in tapping the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market.

For this reason, he has appointed Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan because he is IT-savvy and the chairman of Sarawak Information Systems Sdn Bhd.

Taib said Dr Chan would have a very capable and experienced assistant in Datuk Talib Zulpilip who is currently the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) chairman.

One of the immediate tasks for Dr Chan and Talib would be to set up a database on the MICE market and shape up the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) to become more proactive, he said.

“Now that we have BCCK, our MICE market needs to be developed if we want to be serious in the industry. So, we need to have a database on the MICE market first,” he said.

Once the database had been developed, BCCK could go full swing by 2012, he said when announcing his new cabinet line-up here yesterday.

Taib said Talib’s vast experience in the tourism and service industry through SEDC would be put into creating more tourism events for Sarawak.

Among others, he said he wanted to see Malaysia Association of Hotels play a greater role in promoting tourism and working closely with BCCK.

He said: “We have more hotels now and more landings at the airports particularly Kuching International Airports. The low fair carrier business will go into much more serious gear with China and India developing fast in this area.

“So, how do we take advantage in the development of low fare carrier? This is a new area for development and I’m getting Talib to help his minister in this,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Chan said he was happy with his new portfolio and pledged to do his best to develop the state’s tourism and service industry.

He said information technology needed to be applied in developing the industry nowadays.

“People all over the world are developing the industry because tourism brings the dollars straight to the people. People like hawkers and taxi drivers will also benefit besides hotels,” he said.

Although Sarawakians were generally friendly people, he said they had yet to go all the way in making their guests’ stay more memorable.

To a question, Dr Chan who is Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president said he did not place much expectation or hope in having a new assistant minister from the party after losing eight seats in the 2006 state election.

Two assistant ministers, Datuk Sim Kheng Hui and Datuk Alfred Yap, also lost in that election and since then, no one from the party has been appointed to fill the vacated posts.

Dr Chan said the party had to work hard to regain people’s confidence and win in the coming state election.

Whether or not SUPP would get back its two assistant minister posts depended on the party’s election performance, Dr Chan said.

On the two rival factions in the Dudong branch controversy, Dr Chan said the issue would only be solved when either one back down and give way.

In the press conference earlier Taib said SUPP did not get additional slots of assistant minister by virtue of the ratio between the number of seats which they won in March 8, 2008 state polls and the number of slots the party was in fact entitled to.

SUPP lost eight out of 19 seats in that election.

Borneo Post
9/11/2009

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