| Dr. Wong Jeh Shyan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 November 1964 Ipoh, Perak |
| Nationality | Malaysia |
| Education | National University of Singapore, NUS |
| Occupation | Chief Executive Officer, CommerceNet Singapore; Director, Destiny Africa |
| Known for | Transnational incubation; Venture capitalist; Philanthropist; Mega-development implementation; Corporate turn-around |
| Parents | Mr. and Mrs. Wong Yon Loong |
Wong Jeh Shyan (Chinese: 黃哲賢; pinyin: Húang Zhéxián; Hakka (客家 Kèjiā), born November 17, 1964 in Ipoh, Malaysia) is the CEO of the influential CommerceNet Singapore.[1] He co-founded and served as CEO of Ecommerce Gateway Pte. Ltd.,[2] an active strategic investor in M.I.C.E. sector, notably in Karachi, Middle East and regionally in South Asia. The company is best known for project managing IDEAS defence show[3] and owns ITCN Asia, the largest ICT event in Pakistan.
Wong serves as the founding partner in Shyan Associates, as Consulting Partner in CNSG Consulting Group, and is believed to have indirect interest in more than ten private equity and venture capital firms in China. His diverse business interests span from Europe, Middle East, Africa to ASEAN and Far East. He is considered a leading figure in both the technology, investment and design industries. Among his more controversial activities include the Chairmanship of International Architects' Salon which executed the high profile lobby for the conservation of Factory 798 in Beijing from 2003–2004, now successfully transformed into Dashanzi Art District 798, the bastion of avant garde and heart of artistic movement in Beijing. He is also renowned for mentoring successful entrepreneurs, usually scions from established business families. He currently sits on the Board of Advisor (CS & IT) in Institute of Business and Technology (Biztek)[4] Karachi and advises on Dadabhoy University in Karachi. Most of his known business are privately held by his proxies. If there is one catch phrase to describe Wong, it would be 'unassumingly aggressive'.
Wong is a third-generation Chinese Malaysian: his Hakka grandfather, Wong Men (born 1901-November 1988), emigrated from impoverished Yingde to Laoshimei (老鼠尾) village in Qingyuan county[5] of Guangdong province to the Straits Settlements via Singapore in 1912 before settling down in tin mining heartland of the Kinta District. The eldest of five siblings, the hyperactive Wong was born in Ipoh and grew up in the village of Ampang Baru, a modest wooden house unit number 200. His father Wong Yon Loong (born 1941) is a proponent of mainstream Chinese education and had served as headmaster in various primary schools in Kinta district. His second-generation Fuzhou-descendant mother, Goh Swee Kim (born 24 December 1936 - 1 December 1999) was also a notable and highly respected educationist having been headmistress at various Chinese primary schools in Perak. Despite being Chinese educationists, they elect to send Wong to a Methodist school for an English education - which was subsequently changed to Malay stream national education.
Wong graduated with two bachelor degrees from National University of Singapore, where he further his studies after completing his high school at Han Chiang High School in Penang. He did his higher secondary education in Anderson School, Ipoh after leaving Seri Putera (Seri Kepayang) secondary school in Fair Park, Ipoh as well as Ho Seng Ong Methodist primary school in Canning Garden, Ipoh. Wong was well respected for his openness, animated friendliness, and ease of moving across cultural, religion and ethnic lines. It was reflected in his large network of business associates and friends who came from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds from different countries. He is also known to have a close affinity to both theological and theosophical approaches toward the study of contemporary economics. Wong is a prolific thinker who looks at things from many unique angles, thus unleashing unparalleled possibilities which often get his opponents off-guard, which he often used in and against his business opponents.
Wong was a vocal student activist during his school days, having orchestrated the signature campaign to save the Chinese Language Society in Anderson School from closure in 1982. An avid National Geographic fan, he presided over both the Geographical Society as well as Photographic Club in Anderson School from 1982-83. At the National University of Singapore, Wong headed the Architecture, Building and Estate Management (ABEM) Club serving as the President in 1989-90; as well as elected President of The Architecture Society of National University of Singapore (TASNUS)[6] also in 1989-90. He served the Student Union 10th and 11th Councils and served as the Secretary of Disciplinary Commission, looking into the voting abuse cases in 1990 Student Union elections.
Wong is well-known for his dedications and fervour in educating industrialists and entrepreneurs on Company Act, the roles of legal entity, protection of minority shareholders' rights and the methodologies of fund raising. He introduced the concepts of 'Aspirational visibility' and 'Aspirational clarity' to many entrepreneurs notably from China that attended his 'Entrepreneurs Roundtable' Networks, and the 'Miracles of Capital' series of lectures. Wong was attributed as the origin of a few very popular sayings among Chinese-speaking entrepreneurs and investors:
"Your choice is your choice, but my choice determines your choice"; 《您的选择是您的选择；我的选择决定您的选择》 "Any resources put into uncontrollable-outcome is called ‘gambling‘, while any resources put into a controlled-outcome is called an ’investment‘"; 《可控制结果的叫‘投资’，不可控制结果的叫‘赌博’》and "Anything that does not comply to your logic is called a miracle". 《不符合您逻辑思维的就叫‘奇迹’》[7]
Wong is known to use Zen dispensation methodology, using a series of simple lines in probing and questioning. He uses mental displacement, disposition and Koan to transfer sudden realization of key concepts to effectively illustrate simple business ideas, techniques and methodologies. He called it the 'idiot's method' of clarifying thought, which technique he used widely in his lectures and presentations. Wong teaches the rigorous art of corporate restructuring, financial engineering, Financial Road Maps, forward looking term sheet in corporate valuations.
Wong's activities in business is in many way typical to those that had contributed to the mythos of the great Ipoh entrepreneurs, the city he was born and gained his early education. His first foray into Pakistan market is the purchase of US Publisher Pvt. Ltd.[8] of the famed Jamal's Yellow Pages directory. He had been credited to have turned the company around and made it into one of the most profitable and largest directory publishing arm in Pakistan. Apart from Bahrain, he is known to use Karachi as his main base to stage into Middle East market.
Together with Ecommerce Gateway co-founder Dr. Khursheed Nizam,[2] Wong helped jump start and developed the infancy M.I.C.E. industry in Pakistan in the early 2000s. New to CommerceNet then, Wong was among the first to see the commercial potential of Pakistan's M.I.C.E. industry. He lobbied his resources and network, mobilising his acquaintances and business contacts together, financed and led numerous trade delegations to Pakistan[9][10] from 2001 to 2007. From early-2008, he shifted his focus to building various international real estate funds with his Pakistan and China investment networks, investing and launching real estates projects internationally.
Among the key projects attributed to Wong is the ITCN Asia series (named after Infocomm Technologies CommerceNet Asia) in Karachi, first held in March 2001. The project is known to have gained considerable support from the Governor of Sindh then, H.E. Muhammad Mian Soomro[11] and subsequently H.E. Dr. Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan,[12] the succeeding Governor; and the then Sindh Finance Minister, Senator Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh,[13] as a catalyst for investment into Karachi. The project was international in scope, and widely publicised in the media[14] with the support and attendance of former President Pervez Musharraf then.
A strong proponent of promoting trade among Muslim countries, Wong finally established a physical MuslimBIG[15] trade series after several failed online attempts including MuslimBizHub and ePortal Exchange. He is known for his close relationship with Islamic Chamber of Commerce[16] and with the former secretary general H.E. Aqeel Ahmad Al-Jassem.
Wong had announced his intention to leave his investment flagship Ecommerce Gateway to focus on his Guangdong Portfolio and his increasingly strategic Indian Ocean and South African investments by the end of 2009. He however, maintain interest in e-health, telemedical and remote care initiatives and strongly believe that is the model forward for healthcare in large countries like Pakistan.
Wong was the master planner of the new 250 acres (1.0 km2) Dadabhoy University[17] Campus in Hawkesbay. Wong believed that the time is ripe for Pakistan to have a world-class ranking university run privately by a not-for-profit foundation. The new campus is expected to ultimately house up to 28,000 undergraduates when fully developed. As a proponent of contemporary social housing development, Wong proposed an integrated student and social housing scheme as part of the university township development, partly as a measure to relieve some pressure from the housing problems in Karachi.
Wong's Pan-ASEAN ventures are mostly centred in Bangkok, Phnom Penh with new projects in Jakarta setting the pace. While his known ventures are mostly related to environmental design, waste recycling and material science, he is better known for his innovative approach to project financing. His venture portfolio companies are working with promoter of Bogor Cyber Park[18] in Indonesia. Although only playing a minor role in these ventures, he however left his fingerprints planning the innovative financial road-maps of these ventures.
He had financed high risk Cambodian projects originally through the first venture capital company in the kingdom. The company faces several hurdles, leading to Wong's decision to reduce the weightage of Cambodian importance to his portfolio. His known focus is on environmental friendly building materials substitutes, notably environmental bricks. He is known to have totally relocated most part of his resources from Cambodia to Phuket, Thailand. He is known to have set up a series of ventures in the tourist island of Phuket, Thailand including substantial stakes in an environmental friendly cellular lightweight concrete (CLC) factory; on high value-add boutique development projects, and started developing diamond wholesale business. In mid 2011, Wong started restructured his investments in Asean and East Asia to have the headquarters and operations systematically relocated to Hong Kong.
Wong's ventures in South Korea and Japan are less well documented. He focused on P2P, finance related investments and those related to e-Commerce ventures in these countries. He is also known to have taken a private interest in an aggressive Japanese trading firm based in Tokyo. Wong is also known to have taken an interest in setting-up an investment and business base in Japan.
Wong had co-founded Middle-east Transit Corporation (METRANS), together with Sheikh Saud bin Salman Al-Khalifa and Abdul Wahab Al-Zaid. The Bahrain-based company extends its arm over the entire Middle-east. The company had arranged for the facilitation of Monorail proposal into the City of Medina in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, working with MTrans Monorail of Malaysia. He had also financed MTrans Monorail's pathfinders to explore the feasibility of Monorail Urban Transit into cities of Aman (Jordan), Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey), Karachi (Pakistan) as well as Cairo (Egypt). Wong is known to have shown keen interest to move his Middle-east base away from Bahrain to the more competitive Qatar, and was seen to move with the Qatari ambassador in South Africa.
Wong had a close relationship with the late Mr. Haitham O. Himut[19] who founded Strategic Enterprise Corporation (SECORP)[20] of Saudi Arabia. The late Mr. Haitham was also a shareholder in METRANS and was also involved in the original iTeknocity proposal of Bahrain. The late Mr. Haitham persuaded Wong to invest into Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Wong initially even represented SECORP in Singapore until 2006 and extended his support for SECORP via the influential CNSG Consulting Group. The relationship led to the preparation of venture strategies covering Sudan projects, including the controversial NGIP Programmes within the proposed Nubia Free Zone, taking advantage of the more prosperous Arabic-speaking part of North Sudan. SECORP also persuaded WONG to explore Ain Al-Sukhna in Egypt for a new technology township development. SECORP is also a major consideration in attracting Wong to Indonesia working on a version of Bogor Cyber Park proposal, taking up two of the seven plots in Phase I. Wong wrote off the bulk of his investment in MENA after the untimely passing of the late Mr. Haitham, which halted all the projects. He shifted his focus to Côte d'Azur in France and Athens in Greece.
While most of his ventures in Saudi Arabia, including exhibitions (e.g. ITCN Saudi Arabia - Dammam)[21] ,[22] are all located to the Eastern Province, he is said to have shown considerable interest in 'Asir province and around the Red Sea for higher value-add technologies, health sciences and sustainable urban redevelopment projects. His difficulties in securing a feasible site in 'Asir prompted him to finally focused his efforts on African continent instead.
Wong first forayed into China in 1992 entering the newly-minted Hainan province then. His initially focus on construction management; architectural and interior design; as well as business facilitation and networking sectors. Subsequently, Wong operates out of the main cities of Guangzhou, Beijing, and limited exposure from Nanjing; broadening further to Shanghai, Chengdu and Xiamen. He is known to have diverse interests particularly in hospitality, tourism planning and development projects. He is linked closely to more than ten separate and independent private equity groups, now loosely known as the 'Guangdong Portfolios', and another Beijing based cluster, acting as their PEC. His networks of more than 900+ extremely high net worth Chinese entrepreneurs, private equities and strategic investors had become a force to be reckoned within the China's investment circles.
Wong is known to be behind the entry of various China's private equities in their internationalisation into ASEAN, South Asia, Middle-East and Africa regions. Popularly known as 'Huang-boshi' and 'Mohou Caopanshou' monikers, Wong was known to had also taken a keen interest in the Chinese automobile market. His focus and special interest in alternative fuel and environmental vehicles had however not gotten very far in the highly protective Chinese market. Instead, he was instrumental in linking-up Bufori[23] with a local master distributor, headquartered in the Shanghai.
Wong had also spent considerable time and resources trying to set up environmental friendly cellular lightweight concrete factories in booming cities of Qingdao and Chongqing in China. As a profesionally trained architect, Wong strongly believes that the construction sector must moved towards more sustainable practice with eco-friendly building materials, as part of his international investment programmes into ecological initiatives for humanity.
Wong also acted as 'mentor-in-residence', incubating a diverse portfolio of corporate entities especially in Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai and Sichuan provinces. He is known to have attempted to set up an additional base in Xiamen, Fujian province. His new and loosely grouped, but aggressive investment initiatives is better known as 'The Cross-Straits Portfolio' focusing in Fujian and Taiwan projects. He is also known to have conceived and invested into a small outfit known as Black Diamond Digital Studio, a contemporary video production, high-end animation, digital visualising and 3-D modelling company in China. Wong is well-known for his highly disciplined, no-nonsense, strict and active incubation process, investing in entrepreneurs' well-being, and lining up China companies for international IPOs.
As an environmentalist, Wong pushed the investment and venture funding community around him towards 'green urbanism'. His investment focus lean towards large scale community projects including water filtration, waste recovery and recycling, top-soil recovery and rehabilitation techniques and energy saving gadgets and fittings. He is known to have initiated feasibilities into large scale top soil rehabilitation programmes. He aims to reverse desertification after seeing sandy barren ex-mining land sprinkled all over his hometown. He further resolved to transform arid regions into arable land after the arid exposure to outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan and vast deserts of Inner Mongolia, China, and the Karoo of South Africa. Wong believed that the future lies in agriculture, including vertical farming. Early pilot projects include transforming Lanzhou's barren soil did not yield any positive results. He nevertheless did not give up and implemented further application testing, using a formula of water retention gel mixture with barren soil. Critics pointed that Wong's 'fanaticism' towards environmental projects blinded him and often alienated him from other arising opportunities.
Often noted for mixing friendship with business, Wong prefer to do something he passionately believes in unconditionally with his circle of friends. That (unsustainable) approach towards business gained him tremendous camaraderie and friendships. However, the same attitude also garnered sharp criticism from among his investment peers. His investment approach was clearly demonstrated in his friendship with founders of Yee Hup; Kinta Switchgear; and especially MTrans where he helped the company in breaking into regional urban transit markets, particularly in Middle-east and South Asia entirely out of camaraderie spirit. The same applies to Bufori Motor Car company[23] in Kepong, Malaysia. He is known to have meticulously masterminded the entry framework of Bufori Cars into China market via his network of entrepreneurs in China.
His steep investment learning curve was derived from his early Malaysian ventures that had ended in failures. That include the early days of dotcoms when he invested heavily in www.ipoh.com under Ipohcom and Ipohcom Technologies. Critics had labeled him having too emotional attachment to his hometown that clouded his otherwise cutting-edge investment judgment, typical pattern in his early ventures. His muted response to his critics saw him voted with his feet, choosing Penang and the less popular Kuala Terengganu to build his Malaysian business bases instead of Ipoh. His has tremendous liking for Penang Hill (and to a certain extend, Cameron Highlands), where he develops a series of strategic tourism-based investments. He was known to have initiated the strategic Global Entrepreneurs Roundtable in Kuala Terengganu, together with Terengganu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCCI), gathering global top entrepreneurial brains to the idyllic city for think-tank activities. He is known to finance his proxies in the development of high-end boutique bungalows, similar to business models he replicated in China as well as Africa. His lesser known initiatives include several extremely lucrative Private-REIT, spearheading the redevelopment of older housing into investable quality housing stock in Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.
Wong's participation in Mauritius include conceptualising and master planning the Solares Integrated Resort Scheme[24] (IRS) at Flic-en-Flac,[25] a high profile and the largest Integrated Resort Scheme in Mauritius. Solares IRS is better known as the first truly planned township in Mauritius and a destination resort, and was among the first IRS approved by the government of Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
As an architect and urban planner, Wong believes that Port Louis downtown had to be conserved. His solution is to create a new proposed Uptown for Port Louis. He had incorporated this key thinking into his major transportation proposal for the city. He was commissioned by French national Mr. Patrick Yaich in 2008 to work on an Uptown proposal at a strategic site within Port Louis, not far from his original Uptown location in his major transportation proposal. Sources revealed that the land that Wong had designed on belonged to United Docks Limited. Patrick had commissioned several other architects notably from Dubai and United States to also propose a design each, but Wong's proposal closely integrated financial engineering as part of the possible solution. He was known to work subsequently with United Docks Limited to master plan the Port Louis Uptown proposal in Caudan.
A proponent of alternative urban transportation in Mauritius, his most controversial project to date is the highly publicised Mauritius Monorail[26] lobby that he helped raise the initial finance and support. His project had made headlines in the local media and fanned vocal debates[27] by both proponents and opponents to the idea. In his scheme of things, the promotion of MTrans Technology Berhad's monorail (now Scomi Rail)[28] [29] as a viable alternative to Mauritius' pollution-prone buses and old diesel cars. Wong's nature as an environmentalist had him seeing red the state of Mauritius increasingly grid-locked traffic congestion. He has lobbied MTrans to use Mauritius as a base to serve African region, notably South Africa and Madagascar. He is often seen with MTrans founder Mr. David Chew Keat Soon, who continue to control MTrans International Limited of Hong Kong. He had also financed a detailed study whether Madagascar can be an alternative showcase to modern land and air transport solution in Africa as an alternative to Mauritius, having traveled to Antananarivo and had met Marc Ravalomanana when he was still the president there in late 2007.
Wong is well known for starting the E-Global[30] series, an award recognising intellectual ideas of aspiring and rising young individuals in Singapore. His multi-lateral approach towards partnering saw him collaborating with AMPRO, a leading Malay Muslim professional business organisation; Junior Chamber International, City JC Singapore; Innovators and Entrepreneur Association of Singapore (IdEAS) and other organisations coming together to launch the E-Global Awards.
He is known to partner with Mr. Inderjit Singh[31] and two other Pakistani acquaintances, one of them being Dr. Khursheed Nizam to hold Ecommerce Gateway as a private investment holding company for strategic Pakistan business ventures. He later moved into private equity investment in 2004 after seeing the devastating environmental destruction brought by Tsunami which greatly depressed him. His early acquisitions are all environmental related companies in line with his environmentalist tendencies.
His ventures in Singapore are varied. As a prolific entrepreneur, he was a partner in desktop publishing firm, Fu Manchu Designs (1991–93); pioneered the field of digital imaging and archiving where he authored the business plan and co-founded CD Imaging (1991–95), now known as Fotohub; was a founding partner in Rongsak & Shyan, a leading architecture visualising company (1994–96) before setting up his own architecture practice of Shyan Associates in end-1996. He was known to head CommerceTrust Limited, a public company founded by Dr. Toh See Kiat,[32] a former member of parliament in Singapore.
Wong took over the helm of CommerceNet Singapore in March 2000 as the Chief Executive Officer at the end of dotcom era. He reengineered CommerceNet Singapore into a new 'CNSG' branding, known initially for its appetite in taking on higher risks and unproven technology ventures. This had built a strong following especially among technology companies reeling from the failures of dotcoms, as well as incubating companies that are undergoing transformation prior to seeking a listing on international stock exchanges. It also earned a strong following among firms that had failed to secure normal funding from the open market. He was also the key decisive mover of trust mark certification market in Singapore, rolling out CaseTrust before the divisive internal split in CASE that led to a split between CNSG, Retail Promotion Centre and new CASE management. The split subsequently led to the birth of ConsumerTrust, BusinessTrust and PrivacyTrust which outclassed the nominal CaseTrust in the trust mark market deployment programme. The programme was incorporated under the TrustSg programme which depends heavily on CNSG's trust mark efforts. The programme subsequently made it to be part of Asia-Pacific Trustmark Alliance and Global Trustmark Alliance initiatives.[33]
Wong co-founded the prestigious CNSG Consulting Group with two close associates, one of them being Mr. Lawrence CS Ng, who currently heads the group. The group takes on high value and more controversial projects mostly within ASEAN region and China. The consulting group often acts in tandem with the large corps of CommerceNet's Consulting Partners. Together, they are known to leveraged using the consulting group as an aggressive private equity consultants (PEC) and financial platform to 'project manage' leveraged buy-outs, corporate raids and reverse take-overs. The group had pulled off some of the most sensitive mergers and acquisitions in ASEAN and more recently in assembling the highly influential 'Guangdong Portfolios'. Wong is well known and respected for his forte in rallying together high net worth and professional resources in his series of personalised road-shows. He is highly sought after for his ability to mobilise very large amount of funds within very short time frame, especially during adverse market conditions.
Wong demonstrated a special interest in the African continent. He is believed to have set up an investment base in South Africa with a new Private Equity group with an initial focus trained on Western Cape. Most of his peers and competitors were taken off-guard when he shifted his focus to the African region, despite lacking strong networks unlike those seen in ASEAN and the Far East. His earlier heavy loses in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that had nearly wiped out his entire portfolio, makes him an unlikely candidate to move into Africa. His earlier interest in Africa was held back by the difficulties of geo-political and complex social structures, including the setbacks in Madagascar, the unstable Sudan, the Ain Al-Sukhna project in Egypt, which resulted to the delay in the market entry and subsequent limited presence in the continent. Undeterred, he is kown to have taken a strong affinity and liking to South Africa.
His penchant for iconic real estate development is shown in an integrated project with equity interest by FirstRand Group[34] in George, a second line city in South Africa's Western Cape. His design firm was subsequently commissioned to design[35] a notable MICE-centric R28 billion urban development project there, better known as Destiny Africa.[36][37] The high profile project was unveiled by the Premier of Western Cape, Helen Zille on 6 November 2009.[38][39] Wong shrewdly maps REIT model with a combination of a hybrid project finance and corporate finance model into real estate development, which satisfy many local banks who do not see any other viable models of financing large projects.
In mid-2010, Wong took an intense interest in Boutique Hotel sector and was believed to partner his investment funds forming new venture funds to build, acquire and remodel a portfolio of hotels in Mauritius, South Africa and Pakistan to complement those already in works in ASEAN and China. He also shifted one of the more controversial but industry changing integrated global procurement programme which he seeded into M2C International of Hong Kong, known as GloProc, out of Destiny Africa programme into a stand-alone programme based in Cape Town. Wong uses Cape Town as a staging point for investment into the southern and central part of continent Africa. He is widely rumored to support Cape Town Velodrome redevelopment albeit not having any direct stakes in the project. His involvement probably stemmed from GloProc securing the procurement contract for the development.
Wong had also taken an interest and invested into Lormont, a specialty collectible wine company via his Singapore strategic joint investment holding company, ShyanWest, which he is known to hold an equity with Mr. Franco van der Weisthuizen. Wong is also known to take a keen personal interest in the highly lucrative China diamond business channel, and targeted high volume markets of Panyu, Guangdong. Wong is known to leveraged his strategically and personalised high-end markets of China with that of the selective diamond production base in South Africa. He is also known to be one of the potential backer of a new diamond investment fund based in ASEAN.
Wong's love affair with Latin America is short-lived, flirting with the possibility to enter the market via Sao Paolo, Brazil. His other attempt is to enter the market via Venezuela which resulted to a non-starter.
Wong is highly popular, widely celebrated and acknowledged for his consistent contribution to the development of Chinese Entrepreneurs in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia via the Chinese Entrepreneurs Network which he was affiliated and chaired since November 2008. He had received numerous awards and tokens of appreciations in all the 39 sessions that he had continuously chaired.
Wong was presented with Melvin Jones Fellowship, the highest honour given by Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF), awarded by Lions Club Ipoh Central in August 2011.
Wong was conferred his honorary doctorate [40] in 2007.
He is a practicing architect and registered with the Board of Architects, Singapore. He is also a corporate member of Royal Institute of British Architects and an associate of American Institute of Architects.
He was nominated and appointed the Chairman of International Architects Salon from 2003 to 2006. He was also a member of the jury for International Tianjin Music Hall Design Competition.
Wong also served as the head of organising secretariat for Singapore E-Global Awards of 2003 and 2004.