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Monday, October 12, 2015

MH370 may rest in Filipino jungle?

MH370 may rest in Filipino jungle: report

The missing MH370 plane may be crashed in a Philippines jungle, according to news.



KUALA LUMPUR: The police have reached out to its Filipino counterparts amidst a report claiming that an aircraft wreckage, with a Malaysian flag inside, was discovered in the jungles of a remote island in the Philippines.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said Sunday that police were seeking the assistance from the Filipino authorities to validate the report, which was lodged by a 46-year-old man on behalf of his relative who allegedly found the wreckage while hunting for birds at Sugbay Island in Tawi Tawi.

In confirming the report, Khalid said: "There was no photograph to support the claim so we are relying on our counterpart to check."

Khalid added that it would take one or two days before the claim could be verified.

On Saturday, the audiovisual technician reported to Sandakan police that a visiting relative from Sugbay Island had stumbled upon aircraft wreckage there in early September.

In the report the man said the relative and a few others were hunting for birds when they spotted the wreckage on the island.

They managed to get near the wreckage where they found human bones. They also found skeletal remains in the pilot's chair with the seat belt fastened.

Before leaving the area, they took a flag they found in the wreckage.

The man said he informed police as the wreckage could be that of an airplane that disappeared last year.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said they were investigating the man’s claims and are still trying to verify their authenticity.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them China nationals.

The incident triggered one of the largest searches for an aircraft focusing in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Anger and disbelief from MH370 China relatives over debris

Photo Source: AFP, Reuters, Linfo.re/Antenne Reunion
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- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/malaysia-checking-report-possible-mh370-wreckage-found-philippines#sthash.dZDAuBFt.EGznjFHf.dpuf

Last month, French authorities confirmed a piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean as being from MH370.

The flaperon was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

By BY NADIRAH H. RODZI The Star

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Sunday, October 11, 2015

Building billions with $3.40

Global vision: Tiong hopes his food products and ships will be seen in all corners of the globe.

Sarawak’s tycoon Datuk Tiong Su Kouk learned from a young age that wealth and success comes only from tried and tested hard work.

AT his gala birthday party on Sept 27 in Sibu, Sarawak’s tycoon Datuk Tiong Su Kouk was inundated with loud praises and exclusive gifts from business partners, Chinese associations and relatives from near and afar.

But the well-crafted gift of “Three dollar notes and 40 cent coins” from Tiong’s 2,000 ­employees in his listed company CCK Consolidated Holdings Bhd was the one which stood out among the glittering jewellery, bright Chinese paintings and flattering messages.

The four rusty copper coins and three one dollar notes bearing Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait, which were legal tender in 1950s British-ruled Sarawak, symbolise the beginning of Tiong’s rags-to-riches story.

The astute businessman is known in Sibu to have built up his huge business empire from a mere $3.40 at the tender age of 14.

Tiong, 73, is one of the top five tycoons in Sibu, which is famous for “nurturing” Malaysia’s top timber businessmen of the Foo Chow clan. The clan’s ancestors braved rough seas to land in Sibu to open up virgin jungles in 1901.

But unlike other tycoons, this Foo Chow who loves to sing the Mandarin song Unity is Strength at gatherings, began his career at a wet market selling fish and prawns.

The National Hawkers Association of Malaysia, which took pride of its own fellow hawker’s success and generous donations, has crowned Tiong “The Father of Hawkers”.

“I came from a family of nine siblings. We struggled with the meagre income from my father’s fish stall. So, when he was offered a manager’s job elsewhere, he told me to take over his stall and passed me $3.40 in a sachet,” says Tiong at Sibu’s CCK headquarters, which houses a large photo gallery of his achievements in the past 50 years.

Humble beginnings: The four rusty copper coins and three one dollar notes bearing Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait, which were legal tender in 1950s British-ruled Sarawak, symbolise the beginning of Tiong’s rags-to-riches story.

“I was a bit bitter then. Why choose me among nine and make me stop schooling at 14? Perhaps it was because I was a fast and hardy rubber tapper (from age eight to 14). But looking back, it was a blessing in disguise. I am the ­greatest achiever in amassing wealth. I might not be where I am today without making a sacrifice early,” adds Tiong in Mandarin, at a three-hour interview with the Sunday Star..

After netting success in fish trading, Tiong went into the frozen seafood business at the age of 27. His seafood products are still a common sight in the market and supermarket till today..

Ten years ago, he ventured into the poultry industry and prawn farming. His food products have entered other areas in South-East Asia, China, Australia, even Europe and the United States..

Apart from the food business, grouped under CCK listed in Bursa Malaysia, Tiong ventured into boat-building some 40 years ago under the name Nam Cheong. Today, this Singapore-listed company is a leading global marine player and Malaysia’s largest builder of offshore support vessels (OSV)..

Under his privately held S.K. Tiong Group of Companies, Tiong has a hand in housing and commercial property developments worth over RM2bil in the country. This group is also an agent for national car Proton and various brands of beverages in Sibu..

Recollecting his early days, Tiong said he used his “two hands and brains” to do business. He was perhaps the first fishmonger to “customise” service for his customers to suit their needs. This was perhaps why within a short time, the young fishmonger became the biggest seafood trader..

Remembering his roots: Tiong giving donations in Minchiang, Fuzhou, where his ancestors came from, in 1986.

With success came recognition. For the past 20 years, Tiong has been an active community leader, holding top posts in many associations. He headed the Sarawak Chinese Chamber of Commerce and was deputy president of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM). He was also a member of the Government’s special economic consultative council when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister.

Tiong, known for his business acumen, is seen as a good boss. He showed compassion to his staff who did not have a roof over their head in Sibu, and sold them houses at cost price. His name also appears in many charitable bodies.

Tiong was conferred the Panglima Jasa Negara, with the title “Datuk”, by the King in 2001.

The friendly and unassuming businessman, who describes himself as “happy as an angel”, shares his success recipe and life philosophies. Below are the excerpts:

How did you break away from the wet market?

I worked very hard, 16 hours a day for 12 years in the wet market. So when a foreigner recently asked me which university I graduated from, I said: “Market University.”

In the market, I customised my service. When someone wanted to cook curry fish for a family of four, I would pack the right type of fish for her. When I delivered the fish to her home, it came with curry powder and vegetables.

But as fresh seafood gets stale fast, this trade could only expand to a limit. So I went to Japan to learn the food freezing technology. I started the first frozen seafood outlet in Sibu at 27. It was tough selling. People said frozen foods were stones, not edible. For three months, there was no business. To win customers over, I gave them (the food) for free. I said: “If edible, come and buy. If not, you can forget me.” After that, there were no more issues with frozen food.

Please talk about your food ­business and CCK.

My food products are sold in Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Europe and the US, among others, via more than 70 retail outlets. My target is to have at least 100 outlets. I am also importing food products.

In terms of food processing, I have two factories in Indonesia and a chicken meat processing plant. I have a large prawn farm in East Malaysia and we export frozen prawns and related products.

Birthday joy: Tiong with his wife at his birthday celebration in Sibu on Sept 27.

The current slowdown has affected our business slightly, but not much, as food is a necessity. The share price of CCK at around 75 sen/unit is low but as the company is solid, I am not concerned. I don’t buy or sell CCK shares.

(CCK posted a net profit of RM5.75mil and revenue of RM245.53mil in the first half of ­calendar year 2015. Its net asset per share stood at RM1 as at end-June 2015).

How is Nam Cheong Ltd doing?

Orders for shipbuilding have been hit by the plunge in crude oil price.

Some customers have delayed their buy orders but none have cancelled their orders. During this period, we have to be understanding towards our customers. Due to bad market conditions, we may hold back any expansion plan.

However, I believe 2016 will be a better year for Nam Cheong, as the market is likely to improve in the first half of 2016.

(Nam Cheong posted revenue of RM518.9mil and net profit of RM49.8mil in the first half of this year.)

Please tell us more about your property investments.

I have never encountered any major failure in my property investments in my buy-low sell-high strategy. Currently, I have housing and property development projects in the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak.

During 1997/98 Asian financial crisis and 2008 slowdown, I picked up cheap deals. When I could make reasonable gains, I let go. Before the current down cycle struck, I had sold a property project in Iskandar Malaysia. I am holding back on my hotel project in Danga Bay, Johor Baru.

Fruit of his labour: Tiong and his family are all smiles at his home in Sibu.

But my commercial projects in Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Miri and Johor Baru will go on because there is still demand.

I think property prices have not hit bottom yet. We may see the bottom in one to two years.

I have plans to list my property business. We need to face pressure in order to progress and work efficiently. When we list our entity, the management will be centralised, we will have to be more disciplined, transparent and accountable.

Like in the case of Nam Cheong, we had to comply with rules on corporate governance. I am proud that Nam Cheong won the The Most Trans­parent Company award (in foreign listing) in 2013.

What is the recipe for your ­success? Did ­connections and ­politics play a part?

I work very hard. I am sincere and trustworthy. Hence, professional bankers trust me and give me financial support. As a businessman, I have also shown that I am sharp, able to make the right decision and act fast.

As a boss, I am lucky to have the strong support of my staff. They treat the company like their family. Every year, they celebrate my birthday. I am very touched by their gesture. I remember during the anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia in 1998, the staff there put up a 24-hour vigil to protect the factory.

I daresay my business has largely depended on our own hard work – not politics, though I have friends who are influential politicians.

For chicken farming, you have to start work at midnight. And in shipbuilding, it is work 24 hours. You have to follow the rules of work, not politics. Businessmen cannot rely on political support too much. It is too risky to do so.

And as a person with little formal education, how do I overcome obstacles? I hire the right people to help me. Some are experts with doctorate degrees. Their advice help turn me into an expert like them. With these people around, I have become a Zhuge Liang (the legendary genius and military strategist who masterminded the rise of Shu Kingdom in the Romance of Three Kingdoms).

What are your greatest ­achievements in life and business?

In life, my greatest achievement is having my family living harmoniously together. I enjoy reunions with my siblings and friends.

In community service, I am proud that I was the first Foo Chow in the world to become president of the Foo Chow associations at the local, national and world levels simultaneously. I am also proud that I spearheaded the construction of the World Fuzhou Heritage Gallery in Sibu. It is the first such gallery outside China and it houses antiques and exhibits depicting the history of the Foo Chow in Sibu, their early hardship, customs and culture.

In business, I am glad to have two listed companies and see my staff working happily. A few years back, when I moved house and offered to sell my old house to any staff without a house, there was no taker. Every­body has a house. That was one of the happiest moments in my life and also my pride.

Since 1986, I have donated millions to help the financially backward Foo Chows in China. This was the wish of my late father.

Is there any advice you wish to give to young entrepreneurs?

There is no golden advice. Just do it. Build your brand name. Don’t be afraid of failure. As the Chinese saying goes, failure is the mother of success. Once you earn the first pot of gold, the next is easy to come by.

Who will be the ­successor to your ­business empire?

Whoever has the most wisdom and best performance will take over the lead role. Although as a Chinese, I am inclined to follow the Chinese custom and tradition of handing over the baton to the ­eldest son, this may not necessarily be the case. It’s all based on merit.

I have three sons and a daughter. My sons, as well as my son-in-law, are in CCK and Nam Cheong taking up important positions. They will be judged by their performance. But they should know that whoever takes over the leadership, he will have to face the greatest pressure and responsibility while enjoying the most prestige and happiness.

As a successful ­businessman at 73, what else would you want to do?

I still have to do some work for ­society. I am doing a lot of charities. About 19 years ago, I set up a RM10mil foundation to help schools, poor students and the under-privileged. I plan to give out more as helping people makes me happy. But business-wise, I still have a vision. I like to look out at the world from my Singapore office. I hope one day my food products and ships will be seen in all corners of the globe.

BY HO WAH FOON

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Malaysian income: bread and butter, affordability of owing a house


JUST a few months back, a social media post on food price comparison between United Kingdom and Malaysia went viral and attracted plenty of attention.

This interesting post offered a peep into the average cost of living and purchasing power of Malaysians nowadays.

A Malaysian, Rysherz Rayn, posted on his Facebook that with about £5 (around RM33.50), he could purchase bananas, a box of grapes, 10 apples, an ice lettuce and five packets of his favourite chocolate in London. In Malaysia, the same items would add up to about RM44.

He went on to share that £5 is an hourly pay for a part-timer in UK. While in Malaysia, the average hourly pay for a part-timer is at about RM4. In other words, to afford the same items that a British buys with an hour pay, it may cost an average Malaysian 11 hours of work.

The post created a lot of discussions, some expressed shock and disappointment, others thought UK is too far away for comparison. To make it more relevant and familiar for Malaysians, I did a quick price check on Australian food.

Based on online information and personal experience, buying essential items such as a dozen eggs, 1kg of apples, a lettuce, and a loaf of sliced bread cost about A$9 (RM28) in Australia; on the other hand the same items come up to about RM20 in Malaysia.

In Australia, the minimum wage per hour is A$17.29 (RM53.50), while ours is only RM4.30 based on the minimum monthly wage of RM900.

Though this situation doesn’t paint the overall picture of the living standard in Malaysia, it does illustrate our average cost of living and purchasing power.

If we take a bigger picture, our issue of bread and butter relates closely to brick and mortar, which is the roof over our heads. When our wages are stretched in purchasing daily items compared to other countries, there is no surprise that our housing affordability level is also low.

According to the “Making Housing Affordable” report released by Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) in August, Malaysia’s median house prices were 4.4 times median annual household income in 2014. This signifies a “seriously unaffordable” housing market because an “affordable” market should have a “median multiple” (median house prices as a multiple of median annual household income) of 3.0 times based on global standards.


If we only take Kuala Lumpur into the computation, the median house prices is even higher at 5.4 times (based on annual median income of RM91,440, and the median for all house prices in Kuala Lumpur at RM490,000). Housing for Kuala Lumpur is categorised as “severely unaffordable”.

It is good that KRI reported the issue and highlighted that our country should gear towards improving the elasticity of housing supply and respond to the needs of all segments. However, other than supply, we should also look into the fundamental issue of our income level.

I remember when I first started working in 1961, my salary was RM628 and my first car was a Peugeot 404 which cost RM7,724. A single-storey house in Klang during that time was RM13,000. It cost me only one year of my salary to buy a car, and less than 2 years’ salary to afford a house.

Young graduate

However, a similar car today costs around RM100,000, and a landed house in Klang easily costs RM350,000. Looking at the salary of a young graduate which ranges from RM2,000 to RM3,000 nowadays, it takes 3 to 4 years of their salary to buy a similar Peugeot or equivalent car, and 10 to 15 years to purchase a house.

A recent news article pointed out that, only one out of two PR1MA housing loan applications are approved. It is ironic that even with affordable housing, the rakyat can’t afford a home.

The scenario and comparison above show the challenges of our young generation in securing a house today. It is unfortunate that when our car and house prices grow as a result of inflation and demand, our income doesn’t grow in tandem.

I also remembered in the 1970s, Malaysia and South Korea were started on the same level playing field in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).

According to data from International Monetary Fund (IMF), our estimated nominal GDP per capita in 1977 was US$1,084 (RM4,791), while South Korea was US$1,042 (RM4,605). During that time, when I travelled overseas with our strong currency, people in those countries looked up to me.

However, the IMF data shows the estimated GDP per capita in South Korea today is US$28,338 (RM125,256), while Malaysia is only US$10,654 (RM47,091). Other regional countries such as Taiwan and Singapore are also progressing at a fast pace, in which their estimated GDP per capita now are US$22,464 (RM99,293) and US$53,604 (RM236,935) respectively.

Back to the fundamental issue of our housing affordability, other than providing more affordable housing, the Government needs to move the rakyat up the value chain and increase the nation’s income level.

We know that the authority has been aspiring to do so under the 11th Economic Development Plan. One of them being to attain a per capita income of US$15,000 (RM66,000) by year 2020.

To expedite this, the Government and relevant authorities have to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the nation, so as to catch up with the other countries in the region.

When we talk about the affordability of our brick and mortar, the most fundamental way is to address the underlying problem of our bread and butter, i.e. our income. Until and unless our wages buy us more eggs and rice, it will be a challenge to afford a house.

- Viewpoint Food for Thought by Alan Tong The Star

Datuk Alan Tong has over 50 years of experience in property development. He was the world president of FIABCI International for 2005/2006 and awarded the Property Man of the Year 2010 at FIABCI Malaysia Property Award. He is also the group chairman of Bukit Kiara Properties. For feedback, please email feedback@fiabci-asiapacific.com.

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