NICE MEETING YOU: (from left) Taib and Wong sharing a moment on the achievements of the Foochows with Wong Nai Siong’s descendants.
SIBU: The Foochows in the past 110 years here had gone through tremendous ordeals to reach where they are today.
Stating this on Wednesday night’s celebration of the 110th anniversary of Foochow settlement in Sibu at Kingwood Hotel, Second Minister of Finance Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said their forefathers’ hard work ought to be an inspiration for the modern generation.
According to him, from agrarian-based communities in Sibu, the Foochows had spread to other parts of Sarawak contributing to the development of other towns and cities.
Besides being adaptable and economically aggressive, he said Foochows had the reputation for being hard-working and enterprising, possessing business acumen, entrepreneurship and indomitable spirit.
“For the 110 years, beyond their paddy farming and rubber smallholding background, they moved steadily into new areas of economic activities such as the highly successful timber industries, shipping and transport industries, trade and commerce, real estate, banking, news media and commercial plantations and other fields of professional practices,” he pointed out.
He said their forefathers had laid a strong foundation for the modern generation to move forward and live better lives.
He reminded the people that despite the success and better living conditions, people these days were living in a challenging world.
“We ought to learn and emulate the same enterprising spirit shown by our forefathers so that we can continue to carve out a thriving future with the same brilliance and successes,” he advised.
He thus called on the Foochows to commit themselves to continuously making Sibu a better place for posterity.