28 theSun | FRIDAY DECEMBER 5 2008

business news

Bout of fever blessing

in disguise
by Karen Arukesamy
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Little did Lim Kwong Choong (pix)
know that his bout of typhoid fever 11 years ago
would eventually lead him to set up a business in
bio-activated energy (BAE) products.
Lim, who was a property development execu-
tive at the time, lived a carefree social life and wor-
ried less about a healthy diet.
However, the 1997 Asian financial crisis
changed everything.
Unable to take the pressures of the stock
market crash, Lim’s health gave way.
“I lost weight, couldn’t sleep and was always
anxious. I was sick for almost a month, within
which I saw five different doctors, tried all kinds
of medicines, from Chinese traditional and Indian
herbs to modern pills, but nothing worked,” he
recalled.
“Later, I was diagnosed with a rare type of
typhoid fever,” Lim said.
It was then that he met his father’s friend, who
introduced a bio-activated energy (BAE) product
to him.
The product is said to be able to keep living
cells active longer, improve general health and
reduce body aches, neutralise air contamination
and reduce water pollution.
“I was sceptical at first because being Western
trained I had not come across any alternative
therapy,” he said.
However, thinking he had nothing to lose, Lim
tried the product and after four days, realised that
he gained a lot of energy and was recovering from
his illness.
“But I was still sceptical that BAE had anything
to do it. So I spoke to my parents, who told me
they had been healed from severe backaches and
rheumatism after using the product,” Lim said.
Being a curious person by nature, he began
investigating BAE seriously and discovered it to
be a scientific breakthrough in many in-
dustries, after meeting experts in Korea
and Russia to maximise the potential of
this technology.
Thus, he set up BAE International Inc,
and managed to infuse BAE into consumer
products such as tiles and various ceramic
products.
The products are also sold to consum-
ers via a network marketing programme by
his company, which invests in continuous
research and experiments.
Within four years, the business proved
to be doing well with an annual growth of
25%.
“There are almost 60,000 distributors,
with about 10% active ones,” Lim said, who
is among the 14 nominees in the Ernst and
Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
2008 under the Emerging Entrepreneur
category.
“One of the major challenges in this kind
of business is the need to constantly edu-
cate consumers,” he said, adding that this is
where his company invested heavily in.
“We do this by educating our distribu-
tors and business partners, which includes
market planning, team-building, motivation
and product development,” he said.
Aiming to venture into Vietnam, Cam-
bodia, the Philippines and India as a short-
term goal, Lim plans to get his technology
validated by globally recognised scientific
journals.
“In life, as human beings, we must have
the desire and passion to succeed, get out
of our comfort zones and believe that our
dreams can come true,” he said.
“This is what drives me every day as the
CEO of BAE International.”
Lim won the 6th Asia Pacific Interna-
tional Entrepreneur Excellence Award, un-
der the Excellence Leadership category.

Europe poised to slash rates

as global economy reels
TOKYO/BEIJING: Central banks in Europe were
poised to cut interest rates yesterday to try to
contain a global economic slump that appears to be
spreading faster than policymakers had anticipated.
Asia-Pacific nations kept up the flood of grim
news after US data overnight showed private sector
employers axed jobs at the fastest pace in seven
years, and that the economy, in recession for a year,
had deteriorated in the past few weeks.
Japanese companies slashed spending, showing
the economy was deeper in a recession than the
government had estimated.
Australian vehicle sales plunged and the Reserve
Bank of New Zealand said it probably would have to
cut rates again after a record reduction of 150 basis
points yesterday.
“With indicators pointing to an intensifying global
adjustment in employment and business spending,
our forecast of the deepest four-quarter GDP slide
in the developed world since World War II appears
to be on track,” JPMorgan economists said in a
research note.
A broad swathe of industries have been devas-
tated by the worst financial crisis since The Great
Depression, including the US auto industry, which
has been lobbying Washington for a bailout.
General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are con-
sidering accepting a pre-arranged bankruptcy as
the last-resort price of getting a multi-billion dollar
government bailout, Bloomberg reported, citing a
person familiar with internal discussions.
The failure of the three biggest US carmakers
could trigger a disastrous domino effect on the sup-
ply chain that feeds the industry, analysts said.
Asian shares fell as investors braced for a sharp
turn lower in the global economy and sought safety
in US government debt, pushing benchmark yields
to five-decade lows.
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank
of China, told yesterday’s opening session of “Stra-
tegic Economic Dialogue” between China and the
United States to prepare for the worst scenario, said
an official from the central bank.
Zhou expressed confidence that China could
sustain economic growth and financial stability but
said there was a need for “timely, effective and pre-
emptive measures” to tackle the deepening crisis,
the official said.
China slashed interest rates last week to spur an
economy now threatened by a crisis that began with
US mortgage defaults last year. Australia and Thai-
land followed this week to avoid recession and the
European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the
Swedish central bank are likely to cut too. – Reuters

China urges US to do all it can to tame crisis

BEIJING: China urged the United States yesterday to
spare no effort to stabilise its economy and financial
markets to help avert a global recession.
Speaking at the start of a fifth meeting of the
cabinet-level “Strategic Economic Dialogue” be-
tween the United States and China, Vice-Premier
Wang Qishan said Beijing was doing its part by
pursuing fast growth.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose
term in office is rapidly drawing to a close, praised
China for the responsible role it was taking to boost
a fading global economy.
US officials told reporters later that China gave
reassurances that it remained committed to reform-
ing its currency mechanisms along market lines.
Washington wants greater currency flexibility to lead
to a rise in the yuan’s value, something it regards as
essential to shrink China’s huge trade surpluses.
“There’s been progress. China continues to
reinforce to us that they remain committed to
reform,” a US official told reporters. “By that I mean
appreciation over time.”
Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xioachuan
expressed confidence China could sustain growth
and financial stability, an official told reporters.
But Zhou said policy makers needed to take
“timely, effective and pre-emptive measures.“
“In particular they need to prepare for the worst,”
Jin Qi, head of the bank’s international department,
quoted Zhou as adding. – Reuters