KL Industry Trip 2008: Last Day

On the third day, we all checked out of our lodgings in the morning before our trip down to Westports, one of the two major ports in Klang Valley dealing with the imports and exports of the country. There was an impressive multimedia presentation by Ms Firdaus, a Public Relation Executive and it was an eye opening experience for us as Westports has a combined 61% market share in year 2007 with Northport. We were introduced to the machinery only found in ports, like the quay crane, which can carry weights twice its size, to the prime mover, of which there are 208 units. Westport has two major types of businesses, namely the container and conventional businesses. Their 14 berths are specially designed to fit into these main businesses, with berths 1-5 for conventional businesses, while berths 6-14 are specifically for the container businesses. The presentation was followed by light refreshments and finally a bus tour around the compound of the docking sites guided by the Port’s internal police officer. The vast size of the property was so large it took half an hour to cover the whole area. The cranes, shipping docks and so on were pointed out by our tour guide.


The last main event of the day was our Networking Lunch at the CPA main office. Here we had a meet and greet session over lunch with some members of two other student charters from universities in KL, namely Sunway (Victoria University) CPA Australia Student Charter and CPA Student Charter of Metropolitan University College. Both student charters shared what they have done for the year, as well as what they are planning to do for the upcoming semester. Victoria University Student Charter has been around for two years, and their track record is impressive, as they have organised many activities for their students, namely educational trips to many industries, as well as trips to various accounting firms like Ernst and Young and KPMG.
Although the student charter for Metropolitan University College is relatively young, they are already planning a trip to Singapore. They are planning to visit Temasek Holdings, and Singtel, among other companies.

A group picture of those staying at Traveller's Palm Lodge.

Committee photo! (Look how vain we are :)

The first company we visited on that day was Westport, one of the biggest ports in Port Klang. Naturally we were in awe of the humongous size of the business's compound!

I believe we were all eying the cars lined up on the compound!

After that, off we were to CPA's Head Office where we were joined for lunch by two other student charters under CPA, namely Student Charter of Sunway College (SCSC), Sunway University College, and CPA Student Charter of Metropolitan.

KL Industry Trip 2008: Day Two

We started off day two with a visit to DiGi’s headquarter accompanied by friendly Ms Catherine Kok who is the Head of Service Support of DiGi and Mr Peter Wong from CPA Australia office. The uniqueness of DiGi beyond doubt shattered our mentality of the traditional workplace with its concepts of environment-friendly glass walls and landscapes and indoor ponds as well as the open office concept with casual wear – even the CEO, Johan Dennelind, does not have his own permanent office space to work in! We had some light morning tea and a guided tour around the grounds of DiGi, Indeed, the atmosphere is truly dynamic unlike any ever seen by our participants.

Then, we moved on to Deloitte, one of the big four accounting firms, whereby we were treated to lunch Ms Chua Chai Ping, the Human Resources Manager painted an insightful picture of the working atmosphere within one of the Big 4 companies, which did not stray from our idea of being an accountant. She also enlightened us with her experience of working with Deloitte from an assistant and how she became who she is today. After that, a short tour around the offices of Deloitte ensued. We broke off to next visit to BDO Binder, an accounting firm that ranked 5th in Malaysia.

BDO Binder, another accounting firm was impressive nonetheless. The culture at BDO Binder was comparatively different from the one we experienced at Deloitte, which was a good change as we wanted the participants to have a feel for the many different types of cultures that are available in different companies. The humourous and friendly Managing Partner , Dato’ Gan Ah Tee shared his experience and the Company’s background and culture. The society in this company was comparatively more open and dynamic with friendly staffs who gave us good advice ranging from studying tips to working experiences.

The bus took us back to our lodgings earlier as most of us planned to shop in the Bukit Bintang vicinity. The night ended early.

KL Industry Trip 2008: Day One

On the first day, 16th July 2008, our group of 28 club members accompanied by Club Advisor Ms Su Sueh Ing and lecturer Ms Kueh Chare Nee arrived at Kuala Lumpur’s LCC Terminal on an Air Asia flight circa 11am. We were greeted and introduced to Ms Leong Pui Kuan, a CPA recruitment officer from CPA Australia, Malaysian Division office, who became our tour guide for the day. From there, we stopped at roadside food stores for lunch before driving down to Parliament.

Arrived at KL. Everyone's looking out for Ms Leong.

This is Ms Leong Pui Kuan from CPA Australia (Malaysian Division). She was our tour guide for the day.

The next stop was to Parliament. Our visit there was certainly an eye-opening experience. The security was tight and the guards would check on our dress code before entering the Dewan. The visit here allowed us to witness the way the laws in our country are being made or enacted, that is through the tabling of Bills and Amendments of existing acts. Our guide from Parliament explained the concepts of bill amendments and introduction of new Bills in the Senate and House of Commons. We had the chance to be the spectators of live debates in both the Dewan Negara (The Upper House) and Dewan Rakyat (The Lower House).

Following that, we had a brief shopping stint at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) before being brought to our lodgings, Traveller’s Palm Lodge and Red Palm at Bukit Bintang to settle in for the night.