BCCK qualifies as finalist in MIPIM Asia Awards

THE Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) has been shortlisted as one of the three finalists in the Best Business Centres category of the MIPIM Asia Awards 2010. The centre was pitted against South Korea’s NHN Green Factory building and Shanghai International Financial Centre HSBC building. Main market-listed conglomerate Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMS) announced yesterday that it was proud that its submission of the BCCK had been shortlisted.

Sarawak’s pride: The BCCK has been selected as a finalist in the Best Business Centre category of the MIPIM Asia Awards.

The selection of the winner will be through voting by an expected 2,000 delegates from across Asia attending the MIPIM Asia conference and exhibition in Hong Kong from Nov 10 to 12. The winner will be announced at the MIPIM Asia Awards ceremony on Nov 11. MIPIM Asia is the world’s property market in the Asia-Pacific region.

The MIPIM Asia Awards, launched in 2007 and now in its fourth edition, pay tribute to outstanding projects in the Asia-Pacific region for their environmental, architectural and technical features. The projects compete in eight categories namely business centres, shopping centres, mixed-use buildings, residential developments, hotels and tourism resorts, green buildings, best Chinese projects and Futura projects. This year’s finalists were chosen by a prestigious panel of 11 international jury members who met for nearly eight hours in a closed-door meeting on Sept 17 in Hong Kong to review 79 projects that had been short-listed.

Only three finalists were selected in each category and announced at a press conference at the MIPIM Asia headquarters in Paris on Sept 21. CMS group managing director Datuk Richard Curtis, in a press statement issued yesterday, said: “We are extremely proud that our project, the sole Malaysian finalist, has made it to the final round. The awards are considered by many to be the Oscars for real estate as the winners are determined by a large group of leading industry professionals made up of institutional investors, public and private sector organisations, property developers, hotel groups and others. The winners are especially proud to receive this industry recognition of excellence.

Last year, more than 1,900 participants from over 1,000 companies representing 42 countries were present at the MIPIM Asia in Hong Kong. Located on The Isthmus, Kuching, the BCCK is Sarawak’s first purpose-built world-class convention centre. Easily recognised by its distinctive giant rainforest Ririg leaf-shaped green roof, it was developed for the Sarawak government by CMS’ construction subsidiary PPES Works (Sarawak). It was designed by local architectural firm Arkitek KDI. Fully completed earlier this year, the BCCK’s pillar-free 10m-high Great Hall and 14 additional meetings rooms have been the preferred venue in East Malaysia for many events large and small, local and international.

-thestar online.