Lim Goh Tong

During that time, China was in a period of turmoil and unrest after the 1911 revolution, but life was relatively sheltered for Lim in the village.

He grew up peacefully and had the opportunity of studying in school.

However, disaster struck and his father died when he was 16.

Lim was forced to leave school and he and his elder brother had to take over the heavy burden of feeding his family.

As China's situation was becoming worse, Lim Goh Tong decided to take the plunge in venturing out to Malaysia (known as Malaya at that time) following in his cousin, Lim Kheng Chong's footsteps.

Lim Goh Tong (28 February 1918 – 23 October 2007) was a prominent wealthy Malaysian Chinese businessman & entrepreneur.

He was renowned for transforming Genting Highlands from an unexplored hilltop into one of the world's most successful casino resorts.

He was once the richest man in Malaysia with a net worth of US$4.2billion

Born in 1918 in Anxi, a mountainous county in southeastern Fujian province, China, Lim Goh Tong was the fifth child in his family.

He had an elder brother (Jing Ya), three elder sisters (Lim Zhuang, Lim Bau and Lim See), a younger sister (Lim Mei) and a younger brother (Jing Kun).

Lim was born into a rustic environment in a village.

He left China through Xiamen in early February 1937 at the age of 19.

He worked for his uncle as a carpenter in the first two years, learning the Malay language in the meantime.

After gaining experience he went on to become a building sub-contractor and completed his first job of building a two-storey school.

He returned to Anxi in 1940, but went back to Malaya the next year amidst a deteriorating war environment.

The Japanese invaded Malaya in 1942 and caused Lim to have a few near-death experiences.

During the early Japanese Occupation, he earned a living as a vegetable farmer but decided to switch to petty trading for a better living.

Later on, Lim ventured into scrap-metal and hardware trading.

When the Japanese Occupation ended, there was an urgent demand for heavy machinery for resumed operations in mines and rubber plantations.

Lim seized the opportunity and engaged in second-hand machinery trading, making his first fortune.

From used machinery trading, Lim strayed into iron mining, joining as a partner in an iron mining company which couldn't settle the outstanding payment of two bulldozers with him.

This proved to be a successful venture, and he later went on to form a joint-venture company which was one of the first Chinese tin companies to utilise dredges.

While dealing in heavy machinery, Lim accumulated a wide range of reconditioned machines as well as a substantial amount of cash to move into construction and related industries.

In the name of his family construction company, Kien Huat Private Limited, Lim began taking on several contracting jobs with help and guidance from his uncles.

Kien Huat won accolades and became recognised as one of the leading construction companies, building the Ayer Itam Dam and the Kemubu Irrigation Scheme.

Genting Group's involvement in the property sector can be traced from the initial primary objective of holding land-based assets for long term appreciation and development potential to the current strategic move to develop and market the Group's landed properties mainly held in the plantation subsidiary, by Asiatic Land Development Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Plantations Berhad – which is 54.8% owned by Genting Berhad.

The idea of building a hilltop resort was first conceived when Lim Goh Tong was having dinner in Cameron Highlands.

As he was enjoying the soothing cool breeze of Cameron Highlands, an idea struck him that as the standard of living rose steadily in Malaysia, more and more people would visit mountain resorts for relaxation and recreation, but Cameron Highlands was too far away from the capital city Kuala Lumpur, therefore building a mountain resort nearer to Kuala Lumpur would have great business potential.

After doing some research, Lim found Gunung (mountain in Malay) Ulu Kali at a place called Genting Sempah to be an ideal location for his plan.

He formed an expedition and explored the place, collecting a wealth of data on the topography, drainage, soil conditions and other relevant aspects of the region, which proved to be very useful in drawing up plans for developing the resort.

Upon conceiving this idea, many naysayers were sceptical of Lim turning a wilderness into a tourist resort.

Most thought it was really risky and reckoned Lim who was financially comfortable to be foolish to invest heavily in money and time to develop Genting, but Lim brushed off all these negativities and went ahead firmly with his plan.

After getting approvals from the Federal and State governments, Lim began the project in the face of a colossal task.

Among the problems were building the access road towards the hilltop, water and electricity supplies, sewerage system and fire safety.

Lim managed to build the access road towards the summit in three years when it was estimated to take fifteen years.

Several sources of water in the mountain were identified and supply was secured by building water-collection stations and water filtration plants with treated water stored in reservoirs.

Electricity is supplied through a central electricity generation system with 12 big generators.

During the construction, Lim survived six close brushes with death.

Meanwhile, Lim had to administer another major project in Kelantan, the Kemubu Irrigation Scheme at the same time.

This stretched his physical endurance to the limits as he had to shuttle between Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan and he worked seven days a week.