Liew (left) with Song and Powell.
KOTA KINABALU: The British High Commission to Malaysia looks forward to collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment.
Its Head of Consular Department, Karen Song said this after a courtesy call on Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Christina Liew, recently.
“We always focus on the environment and illegal wildlife trade, among other pertinent aspects. And there is the huge Malaysia-UK education connection,” she said.
Saying there are lots of Malaysian students going to the UK, Song said Malaysia is the Number Two country in terms of sending students to the UK for education.
“Britain’s scholarship programme is a good way of getting Malaysian students to study in the UK,” she added.
She also expressed the hope that more British nationals will come and visit Sabah after learning from the Minister about Sabah’s tourism promotion agenda.
In their exchange of notes, Liew said the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) under her Ministry was now eyeing travel markets in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, among other countries.
She also touched on the challenges faced in taking charge of the three portfolios – tourism, culture and environment.
“(Datuk) Christina has been very engaging today. Very useful,” said Song who last met the Minister in August 2018.
“We had talked about how tourism benefits Sabah. The focus is on cleanliness, not just in the city but also in the rural areas and the beaches.”
Meanwhile, the Head of Consular Department introduced David Powell as the new Honorary British Consul for Sabah.
Also present were the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, William Baya, STB General Manager, Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani and STB official Josephine Chai.