Noor Abidah (third right) presents a memento to Fatimah at the launch of the conference. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: Effective communication is important in understanding individuals and circumstances, says Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah.
She also said such communication would enable one to acknowledge and appreciate differences in a multiracial society.
“We must be able to articulate and communicate our message and aspiration in a very clear and compelling manner so that it will inspire people to act, and promote a clear sense of purpose and urgency,” she said at the launch of the ninth Language For Specific Purposes seminar (LSP) and the sixth Global Advances in Business Communication conference (GABC) 2014 here Tuesday evening.
The three-day event with the theme ‘Language, Society and Practices-Getting Along by Communicating’ is being hosted by The Language Academy of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and GABC. It is first time held here.
Also present at the launch were chairman of UTM LSP 2014 Dr Adlina Abdul Samad and chairman for UTM GABC 2014 Associate Professor Dr Hadina Habil as well as the Language Academy dean Associate Professor Dr Noor Abidah Mohd Omar.
Fatimah, who was representing Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem further said that effective communication among professionals would lead them to a work together.
“We must be aware that we are not only required to handle vast quantities of information but also to disseminate those that are proven reliable and useful.”
“Effective communication is more than just exchanging informations it is also about understanding the values and the socio- cultural context behind the information.
“It enables you to communicate even complex or difficult concepts or messages without crating mistrust, prejudice, misunderstanding or conflict,” she added.
Hadina also spoke. She hoped the conference would be able to produce more publications in the areas of LSP and Business Communication.
“Language Academy has its in-house journal (ESP Malaysia) published by UTM Press which will be rebranded as LSP International Journal. The journal is available online. Efforts have been made to have the journal indexed in Scopud.”
“Similarly, the GABC conference has its own GABC journal which is also available online.
“The publications in these two journals will be the contributions from this conference,” she said adding that the conference gathered academics, professionals, students and other parties who want to share and offer their knowledge and expertise with each other.