Sunday, January 6, 2008

Young Professionals Alliance



Young Professional Alliance formed at Kuala Lumpur



Monday, 19 November 2007 05:00pm
KUALA LUMPUR: A Young Professional Evening was jointly organised by the Young Lawyers Committee and the Pupils Welfare Committee of KL Bar. Held at the Si Khiong Star Mercedes Benz showroom at Jalan Sultan Ismail here on November 17, over 180 people were present that night. The evening saw the launch of the Young Professionals Alliance by our Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai. The Young Professionals Alliance is a body consisting of young professionals from the different professional institutions in Malaysia. The main aims of the Alliance would be the strengthening of ties among professionals, the sharing knowledge among its members, as well as pooling resources in order to serve the community at large.
Si Khiong Star offered an extremely elegant and classy ambience which created and enhanced the professional atmosphere. The setting was sophisticated yet simple, and this provided the perfect blend of mood which made for easy banter and interaction. The participants were particularly mobile concomitant of the fact that chairs were purposely made scarce in the main hall.The participants started to arrive by 5.00pm precipitating the committee members to flurry about to execute their designated tasks for a successful evening. Door gifts, compliments of Si Khiong Star were handed out to all guests.Ice lemon tea was served, and guests were invited to view the magnificent new C-Class Mercedes Benz, that was just recently launched. The guests were clearly fascinated by the line of Mercedes Benzes that were displayed in and around the building. The evening was actually a gathering of many professional bodies. In particular, the professionals were mostly Engineers, Pharmacists, and members of MAICSA. Not to forget, a large number of members of the Legal Profession were present too. There were also professionals from other bodies who came to support this event, namely Psychologists, Surveyors, and Chemists; amongst others. Among the Youth leaders of the respective bodies which officially supported the event were, Jennifer Tan who represented the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society of Malaysia, Abriami Pasupathy who represented the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and Yau Chau Fong appearing on behalf of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia. The Young Lawyers were led by Edmund Bon and Dipendra.The guests of honour were, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, Deputy Minister of Youth & Sports and ADUN Kluang, Johor, Gan Teng Siew who arrived at 5.50pm, where the VIPs were seen mingling and talking to the many guests. As mentioned above, the primary purpose of the event was to launch the ‘Young Professional Alliance’ (YPA). The Alliance was actually nothing more than a label and title to what was already an ongoing relation between the 4 mentioned bodies. In the last year or so, these 4 Youth Organisations had many joint events in the name of charity and professional development. The YPA seems a logical and natural progression to give credence to these on-going activities. In an enlightening speech, the Deputy Minister applauded the efforts of the Professional Bodies for organising such an event and stated enthusiastically that it was indeed an ideal platform for young professionals to share their experiences and it’s a good opportunity for networking. He was also amazed at the large turnout for there were over 180 participants from various fields of professions. He was delighted and pleased to mention that the YPA were prepared to work with the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the betterment of the society at large.He then spoke about his Ministry and what it offered to the public. He placed special emphasis on the entrepreneurship courses and skills training provided for our youth. He felt that these facilities were crucial for the success of youth whom did not fully complete their formal education. His announcement of the Ninth Malaysia Plan allocating RM5.3 billion for youth and development purposes was met with a loud and enthusiastic applause. He concluded with the hope that more similar events would be held regularly.In his speech, Dipendra who represented the organisers and the Alliance, thanked the VIP’s for their attendance and the Deputy Minister for his support of the event. He then addressed the participants on issues faced by the Young Professional Alliance. He began by quoting John F Kennedy who famously quipped “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. His speech touched on creating an ideal balance of being successful in one’s respective profession and at the same push for the creation of a Just and Civil Society. In order to ensure Malaysia remained competitive in this ever increasing globalised world; is not only the responsibility of any individual stakeholder but requires, the coming together of all professional organisations committed to the same ideals. The objective of the Young Professionals Alliance was also outlined by Dipendra. He spoke of the Alliance’s commitment to the following ideals:
(a) Joint continued professional development
(b) Joint community projects
(c) Networking At the conclusion of Dipendra’s speech, he then invited the Deputy Minister and representatives of all the said Organisations to a simple cake cutting ceremony as a symbolic gesture to launch the Alliance.Dinner was served and the excellent cuisine provided by Banana Cafe was readily received. A lucky draw was also held, where 3 gifts were given away. The gifts were compliments from Si Khiong Star. By 9pm, the event came to a conclusion and once again, another successful project was carried out by the Bar.