By SAMMIE B
KENINGAU: Wilson Gan, a 37-year-old entrepreneur and community development leader from Keningau, has aspirations of seeing his beloved hometown transform into a major entrepreneurial hub in Sabah’s interior region in the coming years.
“Keningau has great potential and opportunity to become an entrepreneurial centre in the interior area; the town’s economic growth can be largely attributed to local businesses and entrepreneurship particularly in the agricultural sector.
“I believe the main catalyst for growth in Keningau is entrepreneurship and we should be focusing more of our efforts on increasing the number of entrepreneurs in the community; I want to encourage more locals to get involved in setting up their own businesses to propel Keningau forward and to grow at a faster rate,” said Gan during a recent interview.
Gan is a new candidate from the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisaiton (UPKO) party representing Keningau parliamentary constituency of Liawan in the upcoming 17th Sabah General Election on November 29, and will be going up against nine other contenders in what is regarded as one of the most hotly contested polls in the state’s history.
His manifesto titled “Keningau Tatap Kedepan” (Go Forth Keningau) outlines six pillars required to create a progressive economy and community: entrepreneurship, career, industry development, health, safety and harmony.
Gan, an owner of several businesses including in the agriculture and food and beverage sector, said that despite Keningau’s potential to generate economic growth from entrepreneurship, many entrepreneurs “still lacked the necessary knowledge and skills to start and grow a business”.
He described the local entrepreneurial scene as “a high number of business people need to embrace a mindset shift to expand beyond their current level” and entrepreneurs could “level up their game” in order to become more competitive on a larger scale.
“Many new entrepreneurs starting their business seem to lack knowledge and understanding in things like getting a trading license, opening a bank account, profit and loss etc. A lot of them lost money and are forced to learn from trial and error which means taking a much longer time than necessary to grow their business and succeed.
“Part of my manifesto is to see aspiring business owners and entrepreneurs getting well equipped with the right education and training, for instance, in launching new start-ups and developing businesses. It is my hope to see a multi-national company at Southeast Asian or even international level operating in a town like Keningau one day,” said Gan.
Gan, a former district councillor, believes the largest interior district in Sabah is becoming an increasingly important financial hub for other locations in the wider interior region such as Tambunan, Nabawan, Sook and Tenom.
“The major commercial banks and government agencies are well established here and provide access to funding and ease of doing business. Naturally this would allow anyone including from the surrounding areas ample opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship, business growth and strategies right here in Keningau,” he said.
On industrial development in the farming sector, Gan is looking at having more downstream processing plants established in the district to move beyond planting and harvesting to processing raw agricultural products into new food items and other products.
“The idea is actually not too far-fetched…a member of the Sabah Durian and Tropical Fruit Planters Association (MASDA) is opening the first ever durian processing plant in the interior area at the Keningau-Tenom road this December,” said Gan who was former vice chairman of the association.
Gan – as part of his vision to position the town as a primary industry hub – hopes to see a fruit and vegetables collection centre equipped with storage facilities built in town to facilitate transport of fresh produce along with freshwater and frozen fish to other districts like Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.
“There isn’t a single such facility available in town at present. With a proper fruit and vegetables collection centre farmers can bring in their fresh produce there and together with other suppliers could collectively deliver their produce to their destination to reduce transport costs,” he said.
Gan said that tourism – another priority in his manifesto – could benefit from voluntourism where foreign tourists and students take up volunteer work while holidaying in Keningau, and also from holding meetings, conventions and events in the district to bring in revenue.
Earlier in May, Gan collaborated with JCI Tanjung Aru in organising the JCI Malaysia Area Sabah convention in Kampung Nuntunan with over 100 young leaders from Malaysia and beyond attending.
As for career, the new face of Upko has laid out plans to boost employment opportunities among young job seekers in the community, including offering job matching and industrial training programmes and organizing job fairs, CV workshops and internship.
Gan also wants more local youths to have access to scholarships via online platform Uni Enrol which since 2018 had partnered with Malaysian education institutions to match 377 students to RM4.26 million worth of scholarships.
Gan, in his capacity as area commander of St. John’s Ambulance Malaysia Sabah Interior, is committed to create a health-conscious community as one of the key pillars in his manifesto.
He emphasizes first aid training as an important life skill to have and pledged to ensure there is one first aider for every family by providing practical, skill-based training through health workshops in the community.
“In addition, as part of our health initiative, last year we raised funds with CIMB Bank to buy two automated external defibrillator devices that cost about RM10,000 each and had them installed in the Keningau Sports Complex and St. John’s Ambulance office here,” Gan said.
Gan’s long-term vision for Liawan and greater Keningau includes developing the town into a “smart city” in the next five years by introducing an efficient bus transport system and traffic monitoring system and by improving walkability around town.
“If I get elected as assemblyman, I will improve public transport through upgrading infrastructure and introducing buses throughout the town to tackle the current traffic congestion crisis.
“My other plans are having a CCTV traffic monitoring system to help road users plan their journeys, and making Keningau a walkable town with the implementation of more zebra crossings and sheltered pedestrian walkways. I think with a bit of planning it’s doable in the foreseeable future,” he said.
Gan grew up in Taman Bayangan and spent his childhood and teenage years in Keningau and holds a degree in commerce, a postgraduate diploma in management and master in business administration.
His career portfolio portrays leadership roles in local authority and non-governmental organisations, including as Keningau district councillor (and District Health Committee chair) from 2020 to 2024, chairman of Junior Chamber International (JCI) Malaysia Sabah in 2021, national vice president (Malaysia) of JCI in 2020, and JCI Tanjung Aru president in 2019.
Gan, a recipient of Youth Volunteer Icon award from the Sabah Youth Council in 2022, is currently an exco member of the council and was appointed secretary of UPKO Liawan Communities Liaison Committee (CLC) in July last year.
Gan – one of 67 candidates below the age of 40 running in the election – said his transition from community-based development to a political role was “one way of amplifying and continuing with my efforts to serve the community”.
“My involvement in community service is nothing new to me – I have been doing this for a long time. I am passionate about helping people, I started getting involved in NGO causes since I was eight years old,” said the father of three children aged one, three and six.
“Helping people gives me so much joy…my focus has always been about doing community service through NGO work and that is my main drive behind my entry into politics: to serve the people in greater numbers,” he said.
When asked about his leadership style, Gan said he practises servant leadership when working with peers and subordinates in his current and previous roles throughout the years.
“As someone with a commerce background who started my own businesses coupled with years of community and voluntary related activities, I have a lot of experience working on the ground.
“In many instances I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty to get a clearer picture of a situation, what kind of problems other people might be facing in carrying out their duties,” he concluded.
