On 13 November 2022, JCI Kota Kinabalu had celebrated the 60th anniversary of the chapter with a grand banquet at the Ballroom of the Hakka Hall in Kota Kinabalu.
To celebrate this remarkable moment, JCI Kota Kinabalu also invited the Executive Director of Kim Teck Cheong Consolidated Bhd, Datuk Dexter Lau to be the Guest of Honor together with Special Invited Guest, Datuk Roland Chia as sharing speaker for JCI coffee talk session which cover the trend topic “Inspiring the Next Generation of World Leaders.” Besides, the moderator for this session also from 2022 JCI Malaysia National General Legal Counsel Mr. Wilson Gan.
In the talk, Datuk Roland Chia and Datuk Dexter Lau emphasize the important of schooling. School should be place where young generation learned to be the leader. They encouraged students should get more involved in school activity. Datuk Dexter mentioned “To train young people to be the leader at young, not later.” They believe if students get support of family, teachers, and friends, it will change the students’ life and help shaping their leadership.
Regarding the topic of the impact of digitalization on employment, Datuk Dexter mentioned that digitalization had been around for exceptionally long time ever since the calculator is invented. Digitalization will come and we must embrace the changes. It makes the employment more systematic and individualistic. As an outcome, information became the firsthand basis so as the employee must move forward to accept and learn to use the technology. Datuk Roland also mentioned we are forced to speed up digitalization of health and medical care during the pandemic. It is undeniable that we must embrace the changes because information is key to work and process today.
During the sharing session, Datuk Roland Chia pointed out that to prevent brain drain is to empowering people and the private sector. Sabah is known for oil and gas but Sabah also rich in mineral. Sabah should invest and expand the mining industry. By doing so, human capital will come because of the new job opportunity from excavation of new mining spots. Next, setting an incubation center to help the entrepreneurs who are looking into mineral industry will help develop the economy of Sabah. It is better to set up in poorer area, so it helps stimulus the development of rural areas in Sabah.
Another thing is Datuk Dexter quoted “Brain drain cannot stop” yet we must attract talent to build a robust economy of Malaysia. With the help of technological advance, the information exchange and transfer are getting smoother and faster which will flatten the hierarchy of information. With more talents, it will subsequently generate more income and provide competitive opportunity to create a robust economy.
In community, Datuk Dexter Lau been visiting every corner of Sabah like kampung and doing charity to the community and make some adjustment to his company by embracing the important of ethics in his company culture. Meanwhile, Datuk Roland Chia also said social community work is lifelong process. By taking the example of creating the zero plastic waste campaign, social issue like littering leads to flood in certain area because it clogged the drain. This is because there are some people do not have sense of hygiene awareness. Therefore, people are needed to be raised their awareness on making themselves and Kota Kinabalu to be healthy citizen and place. It also provides new opportunity for turning waste into wealth. Hence, this is also a lifelong program of our Sabah Development plan.
Both believes that JCI is one of the great platform in shaping a youth to be a leader and Datuk Roland pointed out that he is proud to find out that many young leaders in Sabah are aware about current Sabah situation and willing to contribute their effort to make Sabah a better place. Datuk Dexter advised everybody should make their dream real and actionable. Yet, young people with actionable dream must get support from a group of young people. So, young people should find a community with positive attitude and work closely with them. The coffee talk ended with word of advice toward the next generation of world leader and received positive feedbacks from the audiences.
