Scholarship recipients to represent Sarawak at International Conventions

KUCHING - The International Convention Scholarship Award recipients were announced by Mr Mike Cannon, Managing Director of Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) at a press conference held at the Bureau’s office earlier today. Now in its fifth year, six scholarship awards, each valued at RM 10,000 covering travel, accommodation, association membership and convention registration fees, were presented to recipients to enable them to attend the international convention of their choice.

In his speech, Mr Mike Cannon commented, “I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the award winners. These talented Sarawakians have taken a positive step to build international professional networks — networks that will help in winning more international conference bids for Sarawak in the future.

“Our aim with this award is to encourage potential new bidders to actively participate in attending international conventions and, in turn, showcase the benefits and opportunities that come from networking at these conventions. It is imperative that Sarawak develops its own association base with active local members,” he added.

Winners were selected by a judging panel consisting of representatives of SCB who shortlisted the finalists based on written applications and interviews with selected applicants from various backgrounds.

The award winners for 2013 are:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Voon Boo Ho, University Teknologi MARA Sarawak - 2013 International Conference on Materials, Architecture and Engineering (Beijing, China)

Dr. Hamrila Abdul Latip, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) - International Conference on Economic and Social Sustainability 2013 (Tokyo, Japan)

Ngui Kwang Sing, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus) - The Fifth Asian Conference on Education, ACE 2013 (Osaka, Japan)

Chua Lee Chuan, Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) Kampus Batu Lintang - International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED) (Stockholm, Sweden)

Dr. Caesar Dealwis, University Teknologi MARA Sarawak - FEL XVIII 2014 Foundation of Endangered Languages Conferences (Location TBC at Ottawa, Canada event in 2013)

Brian Loh, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus) - 9th International Conference on Information, Communication and Signal Processing (Tainan, Taiwan)

Mr Dylan Redas Noel, Director of Research for SCB, added, “The winners were selected based on the quality of their submissions and feasibility of the conference rotation and its scope of programme. Furthermore, our winners displayed a strong sense of passion and dedication in their field of work, and this award will serve to encourage them to bid for conventions to Sarawak.”

The scholarship recipients will receive a trophy and celebrate their win at the upcoming Anak Sarawak Appreciation Award, organised by SCB to be held on the 30th November 2013.

An initiative of SCB, the International Convention Scholarship Awards are open to all residents of Sarawak over 18 years of age. Applicants could be from educational institutions, private companies or Government Departments, or they could be students of tertiary institutions who have support from their University or College. They must either be existing members of non-profit or Government associations to be eligible to join. The selected convention must rotate among different destinations and fulfil the criteria to be hosted in Malaysia.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews