(7 April 2020)

Asean Top News – To assist Malaysia in the fight against COVID-19, Dr Jonathan Choi, Chairman of Jonathan KS Choi Foundation and Chairman of Sunwah Group, donated 20,000 medical masks to Penang State Government of Malaysia. Mr Chow Kon Yeow, Chief Minister of Penang, received the donation and expressed his sincere gratitude to Dr Choi. Mr Lu Shiwei, Consul General of China in Penang was the witness at the Donation Ceremony.

Mr Lu Shiwei (first from left), Consul General of China in Penang, and Mr Chow Kon Yeow (middle), Chief Minister of Penang, received the donation of 20,000 medical masks

Dr Jonathan Choi, Standing Committee Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Founding Chairman of the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Bay Area Entrepreneurs Union and Chairman of the Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, visited several ASEAN countries in recent months and visited Malaysia three times. During his time in Malaysia, Dr Choi has had meetings with five Ministers and had in-depth discussions on the development of ASEAN countries and the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Bay Area to explore cooperation in various fields. Dr Choi also visited Penang State to have meeting with the Chief Minister and was deeply impressed by Penang.

Dr Choi said, “China and Malaysia have a long-term friendship. When I was in Malaysia after the Lunar’s New Year, the coronavirus epidemic in China was severe. Malaysian people from various states made every effort to donate medical supplies to China. Their move has touched my heart. Therefore, after learning that the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to Malaysia, I decided to provide our assistance as soon as possible. Through this donation, I hope Malaysian people can overcome adversity together.”

Dr Choi was very impressed with the development of Penang State in recent years. Penang State’s land area is not very large but its economic power is ranked 2^nd compared to other states in Malaysia. At present, Malaysia has 13% of the world’s back-end semiconductor industry, of which Penang has 8%. Penang is also known as “the Silicon Valley in Asia” as 40% of the supplies of global microprocessor’s assemblers is from Penang. Furthermore, Penang has been gradually executed a comprehensive development plan with the electronic industry as the core combining with LED technology, solar technology, embedded system and biomedical industries as well as the tourism industry.

Dr Choi shared that Invest KL Corporation strongly recommended Sunwah Group to set up a branch office in Malaysia which made him feel enthusiastic to explore the business opportunities in Malaysia. He hoped that Malaysia and other ASEAN countries could overcome the pandemic as early as possible so that economic, cultural and art exchanges among ASEAN countries with Hong Kong, China can be further promoted as well as enhance cooperation with Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao in the near future.

Source: Asean Top News