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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Insider: Tharman and Rotary Engineering</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>1:15 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 4) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>15574.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Just had lunch with a friend who has some inside info about Tharman and Rotary Engineering's boss, a guy called K P Chia. Apparently, their relationship is quite cozy. This friend's info typically quite "chun" so I will tend to believe his story.
Apparently, Chia, using his company (public listed) to donate quite a big sum of money to Tharman's constituency (Jurong GRC). Some involves grassroots, CC etc. So Tharman has a big financier financing the bulk of his grassroot activities etc. Here's one I found on the net:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/print/301292/1/.html
...Also giving it their all were Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and fellow MP for Jurong GRC, Cedric Foo, as well as Rotary chairman Chia Kim Piow. After 20 minutes of exercise, it was onto the cross-trainer for an eight-minute workout.
The event raised some S$100,000 for charity, and an additional S$79,000 was donated to the company's scholarship fund. The fund will help support the academic pursuits of children of Rotary employees. It was the first time the company has held a mass exercise event at Jurong Island but Rotary says it has been encouraging a better work-life balance through regular health screenings...
And in fact, Tharman has also praised Chia publicly a few times. Here's one I found too:
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/reports/public/hansard/full/20070215/20070215_HR.html
Rotary Engineering is another example. It was founded by Chia Kim Piow with a few friends in the 1970s. He was like many others at the time, not much education, nothing beyond secondary four - no diploma or degree. Everything was learnt on the job. Rotary began by handling electrical installations and sub-contracting for the big oil refineries. It now builds big oil refineries. Today, Rotary is one of Asia's leading engineering companies in oil and gas infrastructure. Very active in China and India, and now moving into the Middle Eastern market with Saudi Arabian partners.
In return, of course, Rotary also gets very good preferential treatment from Gahment. In fact, Rotary got a couple of awards recently too:
http://www.scawards.com.sg/press_09_04_24_banking-on-human-capital.html
Almost exactly a year ago, Chia Kim Piow and Rotary Engineering, the company he founded over 30 years ago, were awarded the prestigious Enterprise Award at the Singapore Business Awards. He told this writer then: 'Don't write it so that we're too good. We're just a very modest company.'
It's a claim that's holding less and less water for Mr Chia and his company, which does engineering and construction work for the oil and gas industry, specialising in energy storage and distribution terminals. This year, Mr Chia has another medal to make a growing tally - the Best CEO award at the Singapore Corporate Awards in the mid-cap $300 million to $1 billion category, shared with Boustead Engineering's Wong Fong Fui.
It just goes to show that Singapore is no different. That the rich and the powerful are always in cahoot together scratching each other's back, helping one another...
[email protected]
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Apparently, Chia, using his company (public listed) to donate quite a big sum of money to Tharman's constituency (Jurong GRC). Some involves grassroots, CC etc. So Tharman has a big financier financing the bulk of his grassroot activities etc. Here's one I found on the net:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/print/301292/1/.html
...Also giving it their all were Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and fellow MP for Jurong GRC, Cedric Foo, as well as Rotary chairman Chia Kim Piow. After 20 minutes of exercise, it was onto the cross-trainer for an eight-minute workout.
The event raised some S$100,000 for charity, and an additional S$79,000 was donated to the company's scholarship fund. The fund will help support the academic pursuits of children of Rotary employees. It was the first time the company has held a mass exercise event at Jurong Island but Rotary says it has been encouraging a better work-life balance through regular health screenings...
And in fact, Tharman has also praised Chia publicly a few times. Here's one I found too:
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/reports/public/hansard/full/20070215/20070215_HR.html
Rotary Engineering is another example. It was founded by Chia Kim Piow with a few friends in the 1970s. He was like many others at the time, not much education, nothing beyond secondary four - no diploma or degree. Everything was learnt on the job. Rotary began by handling electrical installations and sub-contracting for the big oil refineries. It now builds big oil refineries. Today, Rotary is one of Asia's leading engineering companies in oil and gas infrastructure. Very active in China and India, and now moving into the Middle Eastern market with Saudi Arabian partners.
In return, of course, Rotary also gets very good preferential treatment from Gahment. In fact, Rotary got a couple of awards recently too:
http://www.scawards.com.sg/press_09_04_24_banking-on-human-capital.html
Almost exactly a year ago, Chia Kim Piow and Rotary Engineering, the company he founded over 30 years ago, were awarded the prestigious Enterprise Award at the Singapore Business Awards. He told this writer then: 'Don't write it so that we're too good. We're just a very modest company.'
It's a claim that's holding less and less water for Mr Chia and his company, which does engineering and construction work for the oil and gas industry, specialising in energy storage and distribution terminals. This year, Mr Chia has another medal to make a growing tally - the Best CEO award at the Singapore Corporate Awards in the mid-cap $300 million to $1 billion category, shared with Boustead Engineering's Wong Fong Fui.
It just goes to show that Singapore is no different. That the rich and the powerful are always in cahoot together scratching each other's back, helping one another...
[email protected]
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