16 October 2010
The Minister for Resource Development and Information Technology, Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai who is representing the Chief Minister of Sabah
Sr Peter Ting, outgoing Chairman of ISM Sabah branch,
Yang Bahagia Datuk Sr Kenneth Yen, incoming Chairman of the ISM Sabah branch,
Sr Bernard Chia, Organising Chairman,
Datuk Roderick Fernandez, State Attorney General of Sabah,
Directors and Heads of Government Departments,
Chairmen and Presidents of Professional Bodies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Institution of Surveyors Malaysia would firstly like to express its utmost gratitude to Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, for being with us today to grace this 28th ISM Sabah Branch Annual Dinner and the installation of the new Committee of the Sabah Branch of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia. We are deeply honoured Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai.
I am also very happy that you have invited me to your 28th Annual Dinner and Installation and I can see that it is well attended and supported. No doubt, this must be due to the very hardworking Sabah ISM Branch Committee under the outgoing Chairman Sr Peter Ting, the Incoming Chairman Yang Bahagia Datuk Sr Kenneth Yen and the Organising Chairman, Sr Bernard Siah.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia today stands at the threshold of our 50th Year of formal existence and starting from the 1st of January 2011, and throughout 2011, we will be celebrating our 50th Year Anniversary. We celebrate because we have been given this opportunity as surveyors to serve the Malaysian public with our various surveying skills, namely Land Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Property Consultancy and Valuation Surveying and Building Surveying. At the 50th year, we also recognise that we must re-brand ourselves so that we can serve our primary constituency, the Malaysian public, even better.
For our Anniversary celebrations next year, we have lined up a number of programs and they will be held, apart from Kuala Lumpur, throughout our five branches namely, Penang, Johor, East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. A highlight of the Celebration will be in June when we will be organising the 13th Surveyors Congress which will be held together with the South East Asian Survey Congress which is not only the flagship event of the ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics but for next year, it will encompass all the other disciplines in surveying as well, and like the past few Congresses it will attract largely surveying participants from the whole of East Asia and increasingly from Africa as well. Another major highlight for our 50th Year Celebration is the production of a Commemorative Book and as you may be aware we have been working on this book for the last two years. The book is I would say about 70% ready and we hope to have it completed by December this year and launch it on 18th of December when we will also be having an Extraordinary General Meeting to make some changes to our Constitution and about this I will speak to you shortly.
The membership of ISM is currently 5,678 made up of 375 Fellows, 2,219 Members, 1,476 Graduates, 390 Probationers and 1,218 Students and not only by virtue of numbers but because of our strong professional foundations, we are a fairly robust professional body and I say this in comparison with other similar professional bodies in this rapidly developing East Asian region.
And it is in this connection, that during the last AGM and the Dinner in June this year when I took office, I emphasised that this session's focus will be on the Internationalisation of ISM and the further strengthening of the ISM secretariat. The reason for the internationalisation is to take into account our inherent strength in surveying which is well recognised in the region and all over the world as evidenced by many of our Senior members being involved in leadership positions globally in land surveying, quantity surveying and valuation and property consultancy surveying. Added to this is the winds of liberalisation which are moving the profession towards firstly, liberalisation within ASEAN and then we anticipate, liberalisation on a global basis. Since we are robust enough, we should embrace this liberalisation because it opens up opportunities for us. No doubt we must also protect ourselves and liberalise on a mutually beneficial basis.
It is time for us to set our sights on the development of our profession beyond our shores and I believe this is also in line with government policy. If we can amend our Constitution and create a new class of membership and admit other practising surveyors in the region to become members of ISM, then that would be a major first step towards the internationalisation of the surveying profession from Malaysia. Later, following the initial opening up we could provide surveying education to aspiring surveyors in Asia and this would cement the enlargement of the footprint of ISM in Asia. When I refer to Asia I am particularly referring to the 580 million ASEAN, China, India, Pakistan and the Middle-East. In many of these countries surveying is not well established as a profession when compared to Malaysia and I am sure that from the pool of existing surveyors in these countries they would be keen if we allow them to do so to become members of ISM and not only use the ISM initials after their name, but also avail themselves to information about surveying that they can obtain from our now substantially upgraded portal and our soon to be effected, and substantially further upgraded, Journal. By becoming Associate members of ISM, as we propose it does not mean that they have an automatic right to practise in Malaysia because the licence to practice will be governed by the respective surveying boards i.e. Board of Quantity Surveyors, Board of Land Surveyors, Board of Building Surveyors and the Board of Valuers. But they can become part as our family.
Lastly, we look forward to the launching and implementation of the New Economic Model and the Economic Transformation Plan by the government and we are very grateful to the government for the grant of RM1.2 million given by MIDA to upgrade our services and we believe we have put it to good use in not only capacity building through seminars and training events but also upgraded our secretariat and our website which is now a state of the art portal. This move by the government is also a recognition that professional firms, and in our instance the surveying firms, are building blocks in society and they need to be nurtured and supported to play an effective role in nation building.
With that Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much once again and I hope all of you will continue to have an enjoyable evening.
The EGM will be held on 18 December 2010 and I would like all members and we have in the past had difficulty to have EGM because the quorum -draft notice - hopefully you can sign the proxy forms which I have brought along. Later if you turn up for the event or alternatively if you change the proxy you can always pull it back. The reason is because we do not want a lack of quorum and have the meeting cancelled.
We also look forward to your support to purchase the ISM Diary at RM15 each.
I am also very happy that you have invited me to your 28th Annual Dinner and Installation and I can see that it is well attended and supported. No doubt, this must be due to the very hardworking Sabah ISM Branch Committee under the outgoing Chairman Sr Peter Ting, the Incoming Chairman Yang Bahagia Datuk Sr Kenneth Yen and the Organising Chairman, Sr Bernard Siah.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia today stands at the threshold of our 50th Year of formal existence and starting from the 1st of January 2011, and throughout 2011, we will be celebrating our 50th Year Anniversary. We celebrate because we have been given this opportunity as surveyors to serve the Malaysian public with our various surveying skills, namely Land Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Property Consultancy and Valuation Surveying and Building Surveying. At the 50th year, we also recognise that we must re-brand ourselves so that we can serve our primary constituency, the Malaysian public, even better.
For our Anniversary celebrations next year, we have lined up a number of programs and they will be held, apart from Kuala Lumpur, throughout our five branches namely, Penang, Johor, East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. A highlight of the Celebration will be in June when we will be organising the 13th Surveyors Congress which will be held together with the South East Asian Survey Congress which is not only the flagship event of the ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics but for next year, it will encompass all the other disciplines in surveying as well, and like the past few Congresses it will attract largely surveying participants from the whole of East Asia and increasingly from Africa as well. Another major highlight for our 50th Year Celebration is the production of a Commemorative Book and as you may be aware we have been working on this book for the last two years. The book is I would say about 70% ready and we hope to have it completed by December this year and launch it on 18th of December when we will also be having an Extraordinary General Meeting to make some changes to our Constitution and about this I will speak to you shortly.
The membership of ISM is currently 5,678 made up of 375 Fellows, 2,219 Members, 1,476 Graduates, 390 Probationers and 1,218 Students and not only by virtue of numbers but because of our strong professional foundations, we are a fairly robust professional body and I say this in comparison with other similar professional bodies in this rapidly developing East Asian region.
And it is in this connection, that during the last AGM and the Dinner in June this year when I took office, I emphasised that this session's focus will be on the Internationalisation of ISM and the further strengthening of the ISM secretariat. The reason for the internationalisation is to take into account our inherent strength in surveying which is well recognised in the region and all over the world as evidenced by many of our Senior members being involved in leadership positions globally in land surveying, quantity surveying and valuation and property consultancy surveying. Added to this is the winds of liberalisation which are moving the profession towards firstly, liberalisation within ASEAN and then we anticipate, liberalisation on a global basis. Since we are robust enough, we should embrace this liberalisation because it opens up opportunities for us. No doubt we must also protect ourselves and liberalise on a mutually beneficial basis.
It is time for us to set our sights on the development of our profession beyond our shores and I believe this is also in line with government policy. If we can amend our Constitution and create a new class of membership and admit other practising surveyors in the region to become members of ISM, then that would be a major first step towards the internationalisation of the surveying profession from Malaysia. Later, following the initial opening up we could provide surveying education to aspiring surveyors in Asia and this would cement the enlargement of the footprint of ISM in Asia. When I refer to Asia I am particularly referring to the 580 million ASEAN, China, India, Pakistan and the Middle-East. In many of these countries surveying is not well established as a profession when compared to Malaysia and I am sure that from the pool of existing surveyors in these countries they would be keen if we allow them to do so to become members of ISM and not only use the ISM initials after their name, but also avail themselves to information about surveying that they can obtain from our now substantially upgraded portal and our soon to be effected, and substantially further upgraded, Journal. By becoming Associate members of ISM, as we propose it does not mean that they have an automatic right to practise in Malaysia because the licence to practice will be governed by the respective surveying boards i.e. Board of Quantity Surveyors, Board of Land Surveyors, Board of Building Surveyors and the Board of Valuers. But they can become part as our family.
Lastly, we look forward to the launching and implementation of the New Economic Model and the Economic Transformation Plan by the government and we are very grateful to the government for the grant of RM1.2 million given by MIDA to upgrade our services and we believe we have put it to good use in not only capacity building through seminars and training events but also upgraded our secretariat and our website which is now a state of the art portal. This move by the government is also a recognition that professional firms, and in our instance the surveying firms, are building blocks in society and they need to be nurtured and supported to play an effective role in nation building.
With that Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much once again and I hope all of you will continue to have an enjoyable evening.
The EGM will be held on 18 December 2010 and I would like all members and we have in the past had difficulty to have EGM because the quorum -draft notice - hopefully you can sign the proxy forms which I have brought along. Later if you turn up for the event or alternatively if you change the proxy you can always pull it back. The reason is because we do not want a lack of quorum and have the meeting cancelled.
We also look forward to your support to purchase the ISM Diary at RM15 each.
