Kota Kinabalu: Better service plus a good environment were cited as reasons why China's biggest and the world's top 500 life assurance companies picked Sabah for its incentive destination for the first time."Actually we have been to a lot of places but Sabah's environment and service proved better," Ye Jiong Xuan, China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Dongguan City Area General Manager, told Daily Express.
"We had colleagues who came here before and they told us about this," he added.
Ye brought along 105 of his most outstanding sales reps and managerial staff for a maiden four-day recreation-cum-meeting in Sabah.
"It's not all tourism but we want a comfort of a place for convention and, at the same time, give everyone a good break," he said.
A zestful and rousing Sabah Tourism Board-sponsored gala dinner at Sutera Pacific suggested that's what they had.
But the chief attractants that really turned on the Chinese enthusiasm appeared to be the intense Murutic warrior aura and mesmerising cultural garbs - pheasant feather tops and abundant blowpipe balloon popping opportunities.
The stunning local cultural displays generated a flurry of digital camera interest mostly posing with our star dancers deemed worthy for the album.
In 2002, China Life Insurance Co. Ltd was voted one of the top 500 assurance companies in the world by a US magazine named "Rich", said Ye.
Its business expansion to Hong Kong and the US in 2003 has also made it the largest IPO in the world.
Of 1.1 million insurance sales reps in China, 550,000 are under the employ of China Insurance, Ye said.
Dongguan City has a population of six million in an area which covers 2,450 sq km, said Ye Pei Xin, Director of China Travel Service.
"Though the insurance business is relatively new in China, the people of Dongguan are a lot more upbeat to the insurance concept because Dongguan is being developed as a World Manufacturing City with an advanced industrial and business base," he said.
"But we must thank the Sabah Tourism Board for supporting our work and to the hotel for creating such a good environment and service," noted Ye Pei Xin.
The group left for China on Saturday morning.
