22Jul

Concert celebrates 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations Malaysia, China

KOTA KINABALU: The Maritime Silk Road Legend Concert is designed to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew. Speaking to a 1,200-strong audience at the opening of the piano concert, she said: “On behalf of the State Government and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, I look forward to fostering our friendship ties further between Malaysia, in particular the State of Sabah, and the People’s Republic of China.” The concert was co-organised by the Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment at the Sabah State Administrative Centre (PPNS) Auditorium. It featured world acclaimed pianist, Malaysian-born Claudia Yang, together with the 87-member Guangxi Symphony Orchestra from China, conducted by Mr Tao Lin. Yang, who lives in Beijing, composed the concert of “Dream of the Red Chamber”, which is a Chinese novel portraying a Chinese Romeo and Juliet love story of ancient China. The one-and-a-half-hour concert was attended by the Head of State Tun Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr) Haji Juhar bin Datuk Haji Mahiruddin and his Consort Toh Puan Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr) Hajah Norlidah binti Tan Sri Datuk R.M. Jasni as guests of honour, together with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie Haji Apdal and wife Datin Seri Panglima Shuryani Shuaib. Also present were Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau and Datuk Jaujan Sambakong, Minister of Health and People’s Well-being, Datuk Frankie Poon, Minister of Youth and Sports, Ginger Phoong, Assistant Minister of Finance, Kenny Chua and State Secretary Datuk Hashim Paijan. Meanwhile, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu, Liang Caide, said the friendly relation between China and Malaysia has become a role model for other China-ASEAN countries with fruitful cooperation in various fields. He said Malaysia was an important country along the Maritime Silk Road. Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1974, he said China and Malaysia have been good neighbours, good friends and good partners. “The friendly relation has become a role model for other China-ASEAN countries with fruitful cooperation in various fields. ” As an important node of the Maritime Silk Road, Liang said Sabah had witnessed vigorous development in recent years. “Especially in April this year, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie has led a large delegation to China and signed more than 10 agreements on investment intentions which has opened a new chapter of pragmatic cooperation between China and Sabah.” On another note, Liang said  Yang and the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra had been invited to perform at the concert. Played with the piano and orchestra, he said ‘The Piano Concert of the Dream of Red Chamber’ composed by Yang interprets a romantic love story of the ancient China, which presented a sumptuous feast of the audio-visual art to the people of Sabah. “Today’s performance is also a grand cultural exchange activity between China and Sabah. “I believe that music will enhance the bonding and bring the hearts of the people of China and Sabah closer together.” He thanked the Sabah State Government for extending its huge support to the concert and providing such a magnificent venue. Source: Borneo Post Online
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19Feb

Sabah tourism sets new record in 2018, with China tourists leading charge

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s tourism has set a new record in 2018 with the highest tourism receipts ever at RM8.342bil on the back of a record-high 3.879 million arrivals. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew said figures showed that from January to December, overall arrivals grew by 5.3% while tourism receipts increased by 6.6% compared with 2017 (RM7.83 billion).”
Overall gross international arrivals recorded a double-digit increase of 10.2%, while domestic arrivals increased by 2.8%,” said Liew, quoting statistics compiled by the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) under her Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry. Liew said the top market source was China, which surpassed the half million mark in tourist arrivals with a total of 593,623 Chinese tourists visiting Sabah in 2018.
As of December 2018, direct flights from China to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA),totalled up to 125 flights per week, she said. The second highest arrivals was still South Korea with an increase of 8.5% or a total of 337,100 visitors, while the Singapore market grew by 9.1%, she added. “I'm very pleased with our performance in 2018. It was a very good year for Sabah. As of today, we are now connected to 26 international destinations by 12 foreign carriers," said Liew. “We will be emphasising more on domestic tourism into Sabah since we have opened up many new tourism areas in the state’s interior and the east coast,” she said on Tuesday (Feb 19). Liew also said that there were currently 444 flights connecting Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Labuan to Sabah with a seat capacity of close to 75,000 weekly, which reflected potential of pushing domestic tourism further. Last year, Liew said 19 more new direct international flights commenced services to Sabah, including the reinstatement of the Kota Kinabalu-Bangkok flight by Thai AirAsia. “The rest of the services connected Sabah to international cities such as Beijing, Xiamen, Fuzhou (Xiamen Air), Singapore and Wuhan (Malindo Air), Shenzhen (China Southern Airlines, AirAsia), Macau and Kunming (AirAsia) and Muan (Jeju Air). "Tawau too is expanding its connectivity with a direct flight to Kuching. “2018 was also a significant year for charter flights as Sabah airports (KKIA and Sandakan) welcomed a total of 343 non-scheduled flights compared with 215 the year before,” she said, adding the charter flights brought passengers from China, South Korea and Japan.
Source: The Star Online
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01Oct

China airline begins Shenzhen-KK flight

KOTA KINABALU: China Southern Airlines started its flight connecting Shenzhen to Kota Kinabalu at 1.40am today (Sept 29). According to Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew, the airline, which is Asia’s largest and the world’s fourth largest, will fly on all days except Wednesdays. “With this additional connectivity, there will now be a total of 98 weekly flights direct from a total of 10 major and secondary cities in China to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA),” she said during a press conference at her office yesterday. She added that the flight would be the airlines’ second connection to Kota Kinabalu after successfully connecting KKIA to Guangzhou and also Sabah’s second connection to Shenzhen. She said that in less than three years, China Southern Airlines had increased its flights from three to 21 weekly from China to Kota Kinabalu, which is almost one-fifth of the total flights from China to Kota Kinabalu. She said this signified strong confidence in the destination. Christina also congratulated the airline for upgrading its aircraft from A320 to A321 for the first five flights due to highly encouraging response during the opening sales of the route in mid-August and reaching over 90 percent of the A320’s capacity. “The decision to increase the seat capacity with a bigger aircraft would bring additional 200 passengers in the first five flights,” she said. She said as of July this year, the total arrivals to Sabah had increased by 5.3 percent or 2.221 million compared to the same period last year. She said 43.3 percent or at least 358,000 of these arrivals were from China, making the country the largest market source for arrivals to Sabah. “We hope to achieve 500,000 China arrivals by the end of the year,” she said. Up to July, Sabah Tourism has estimated that the total tourism receipts have reached RM4.81 billion or eight percent more compared to the same period last year. Christina said Sabah was on track to reach the RM8 billion revenue from tourism by the end of the year. She also iterated that her ministry aims to re-emphasize tourism in the east coast, especially in Tawau and in Sandakan. “These are Sabah’s second and third largest cities with equal, if not more potential for tourism. Most of the attractions there are unique to the east coast and not found in the west coast. It is also our aim that the community there are prepared to re-embrace tourism especially now in this digital era,” she said. China Southern Airlines (Malaysia) general manager Eric Wang said they would study and conduct a marketing research on Sandakan and Tawau as destinations and make a proposal to the airlines’ headquarters. Also present was the People’s Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu Consul General Liang Caide.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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27Sep

Beijing group keen on investing RM2b in Sabah: CM

Kota Kinabalu: A group of Chinese investors have expressed interest to pump not less than RM2 billion in a particular sector in Sabah. Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, who disclosed this, said this would not only create some 3,000 job opportunities for Sabahans but also many spin-offs. The group concerned expressed this to him when they met earlier, Wednesday, he said, adding the State Government has received other enquiries as well. "The Consulate General of China in Kota Kinabalu is playing an important role and has done a lot of work in promoting China-Sabah friendship and cooperation in various fields. "The Consul General is very diligent and very popular among the people of Sabah," he said at a ceremony to celebrate the 69th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at Pacific Sutera. Mohd Shafie said the State Government is willing to maintain communication and cooperation with the Consulate to jointly promote the friendship between China and Sabah. "We are also willing to provide assistance to the work of the Consulate, including extending assistance and facilities that the Consulate needs when providing consular protection to Chinese citizens. "It must be noted that Sabah has become a favoured destination to China tourists – we have the sun, sea and the beach as well as different types of food that are enjoyed by the Chinese," he said. In his hometown Semporna alone, Mohd Shafie said hundreds of Chinese tourists are there daily. He said the Warisan-led State Government is willing to make better use of the "Belt and Road Initiative" to strengthen cooperation with China in various fields such as infrastructure, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism. "The agreements related to durian, rubber and palm oil signed during the Prime Minister's visit to China are encouraging. I believe that Sabah can benefit from those agreements," he said. At the same time, he said Sabah welcomes Chinese companies and businessmen to invest in Sabah, bringing more capital and technology, creating more jobs, and adding momentum to Sabah's economic development. "The State Government will strive to provide a convenient and favourable investment environment." Mohd Shafie said the change of Malaysian Government will not change Malaysia's friendly policy towards China, and the same is true of Sabah. "For Sabah, China is very close in both geographical location and cultural customs," he said, adding China's development the past 40 years has benefited the whole world. Tremendous contributions have been made to the world development by lifting 740 million people from poverty. It is shown that China has chosen a suitable path for its own development, which provides reference and confidence for other developing countries around the world." He said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir recently said during his visit to China, that Malaysia's Look East policy in the new period includes learning from the successful experience of China's development, promoting innovation and creativity, as to achieve greater development for the country. - Larry Ralon   Source: Daily Express
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16Apr

Bigger incentive groups eyeing Sabah – STB

KOTA KINABALU: The demand for larger meeting venues is greater now that bigger incentive groups are eyeing Sabah for their annual trips, said Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani, General Manager of Sabah Tourism Board. Sabah recently welcomed more than 700 delegates from Herbalife China, she said. “For the first time, global multi-level marketing group Herbalife (China) chose Sabah as their incentive destination this year. They were driven by the preference for beaches and cultural elements. “The delegates who came from various parts of China ended their five-day four-night incentive tour to Kota Kinabalu after visiting the Manukan Island, cultural village, river cruising and rafting activity in Kiulu,” she added. Suzaini said last year, Sabah received two large groups from China of at least 2,000 pax each that spread out to several hotels in the state capital. “Until June this year, Sabah is expected to host an additional 1,500 delegates from China and at least 500 business delegates from Korea and Malaysia.” Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCeb), Datuk Zulkefli Sharif disclosed that incentive groups had contributed over RM3.4 billion of estimated economic impact to the country¡¦s economy since 2011. ¡§With the completion of the SICC this year, we are ready to welcome bigger incentive groups up to 5,000 pax to Sabah. In the past three years, MICE business brought in an average of RM125 million per year into Sabah. Looking forward, we will be targeting incentive groups from China because of the many large corporations located there,¡¨ said Suzaini. “China has been the top market source for tourism in Sabah since 2011. In the single month of February 2018, China market recorded a growth of 84.9%. A total of 431,026 Chinese visitors for the year of 2017 or an increase of 15% compared to 2016,” she said. Suzaini said new flights connecting China to Kota Kinabalu had been introduced every year. “There are now a total of 91 scheduled flights from China weekly,” according to Sabah Tourism. Source: The Borneo Post
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