SPEECH BY YAB DATUK CHONG KAH KIAT, CHIEF MINISTER OF SABAH, AT THE OPENING OF THE HOUSE OF LINGZHI PENAMPANG, ON 8 MARCH 2003

It gives me great pleasure to be with you all this morning at the opening of this very very unique museum called "the Lingzhi Museum". The opening of this very specialized museum is indeed another significant milestone for the city of Kota Kinabalu in particular and of the State of Sabah as a whole and indeed for Malaysia and will certainly contribute towards the growing range of tourism products to meet the needs of the local and overseas visitors. I am sure this very special Lingzhi Museum is the only one such museum in the world having such a vast collections of wild natural Borneo Lingzhi ever available.

During the last decade many developed countries are showing growing interest in the use of traditional medicine and its alternatives for healing and health care. For many Asian countries especially China, India, Korea and Japan, herbal based traditional medicine continues to be the mainstay of their health care. In Malaysia, the herbal market is growing at about 20 percent a year, and thus offers exceedingly good prospects for the development of the local herbal industry.

At present many herbal products in Malaysia rely on imports. I am told that only about 5 percent of the herbal products constitute local content. Since many of the basic ingredients for herbal based traditional medicine are derived from the natural environment, Sabah therefore has the potential to be a major source of the ingredients required for the herbal industry in Malaysia. Sabah’s natural environment and its remarkable biodiversity, occurring in both its terrestrial landscapes and in the sea, offers great opportunities in scientific research to develop herbal based traditional medicine.

In this respect, I am very pleased to see that local entrepreneurs in Sabah have begun to recognise the potential of our environmental resources, especially that our forests do not just yield timber but also other valuable bio resources. I therefore note with pleasure at the vision and entrepreneurship shown by Mr. Lim Kim Heng. He has discovered that our forests contains a real botanical treasure, which can be processed, packaged, distributed, and exported to the rest of the world. This is the lingzhi, which I believe most of us know or have heard about, a mushroom which is proven to contain medicinal properties that are essential for proper functioning of the immune system and is recognised as an effective anti-tumor agent. The lingzhi is also known to possess a wide range of cures for more than 20 different ailments that include among others asthma, hepatitis and arthritis. It is known in China as "the herbs of longevity". Great care has been taken by Mr. Lim's Company to maintain quality in the process to turn lingzhi into capsule form. This has been proven through certification given by SIRIM for the product. Since production began to turn a substantial collections of the Lingzhi collected by Mr. Lim over the past 30 years into capsule form I have been informed that the product has received very encouraging response from the public both local and overseas. I have of course been assured by Mr. Lim that an equally large selected collections of the Lingzhi will be showcased perpetually at this Lingzhi Museum for the benefit of mankind.

The opening of this very special museum on lingzhi is indeed commendable for not only does the museum gives us an opportunity to see the many different types of natural lingzhi found in Sabah but also at the same time to see how lingzhi is processed. This museum which showcases such a vast collections of tropical vast natural Lingzhi is indeed a natural treasure. This very vast collections owned by Mr. Lim is really priceless. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that people from over the world especially from China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Indo China and Singapore will flock to Sabah just to see the Lingzhi in this museum if only they know its existence and know how to get to Sabah.

I would therefore like to urge all the tourism players especially the tour operators,to promote this very unique and new attraction and include it in your tour itinerary as a "must-visit attraction" for it provides greater insight to the richness of our state’s natural heritage. The lingzhi museum also demonstrates how the development of a new tourism product can be incorporated into existing packages to enhance the attractions of a destination. For instance, there is a beautiful chinese temple just a stone’s throw-away from this museum which can be packaged together with the museum that will appeal to our tourists especially our Chinese and Taiwanese visitors. Indeed, there are many attractions within Kota Kinabalu that can be repackaged in the same way.

We must help to promote this commendable effort by a Sabah based company which showcases our natural treasure and also promoting the use of our natural endowment. We must be proud to acknowledge that this product is using 100 percent local contents. And with the plans by MAS to increase accessibility and frequencies into Kota Kinabalu from Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Taipei, Kaoshiung, Seoul and Tokyo, I am confident that visitors from these destination will be most interested to visit this museum. As you are all aware of, Asians are very much into traditional and alternative system of medicine. In this museum not only will they be able to know more about lingzhi but also the opportunity to purchase this valuable product at very reasonable prices.

Before I conclude, I would like to stress that with every tourism product there is always a constant need to not only maintain standards but also to enhance its value by providing appropriate services and amenities to ensure repeat visitors. I hope this museum will be able to maintain these standards and ensure that its exhibition and products are always of highest standard and quality.

With that I would like to officially declare open the Lingzhi Museum.

Thank You.