TODAY'S CEO OUTLOOK 2003 features two CEOs in the hotel sector and one in the information technology (IT) industry.
Unlike many sectors in Malaysia which see the emergence of China as competition to their industries, the hotel sector is looking forward to the Chinese dollars as China becomes more affluent and its citizens catch the travel bug.
Christian Hassing, the general manager of Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur, says the Mandarin Oriental group has expanded its sales offices in Beijing and Shanghai to tap the Chinese market.
Another group that the hotel is wooing are tourists from the Middle East, who are attracted to the hotel because of its five-star standards and proximity to the shopping mecca KLCC.
Tan Boon Lee heads the hotel business of the IGB group, but he is participating in this CEO survey as president of the Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners (MAHO).
He commends the Culture, Arts and Tourism Ministry for doing a fine job putting Malaysia on the tourist map, and shares Hassing's optimism about the growing market for tourists from China and the Middle East.
Looi Kean Leong CEO of SCS as well president of Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom), also commends the government for its efforts to promote Malaysia as an IT nation.
His company has grown rapidly in Malaysia in recent years and is moving into other Asian countries as well as the Middle East.
This concludes our CEO OUTLOOK 2003 series. A record 53 CEOs participated in our fifth annual CEO Outlook series and our thanks and gratitude go to them for their frank and interesting views.
May their businesses prosper in 2003.
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