Swinburne undergrad wins 2 awards in final round of Deloitte Tax Challenge
KUCHING: A business undergraduate who won the individual category of the Malaysian Deloitte Tax Challenge last November took two awards at the recent Southeast Asia finals round in Singapore.
Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus accounting and finance undergraduate James Voon Tein Wei picked up both the Merit Award and The Best Presenter Award.
“Representing Malaysia was an honour I will remember for a long time,” said the final year student who faced the national champions from Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand in the regional final.
“I would like to thank Deloitte Singapore for organising the Deloitte Southeast Asia Tax Challenge 2017 as it gave undergraduates like me an opportunity to explore our interests and potential,” he added in a publicity release yesterday.
Voon, who was motivated by the chance to represent his country, was most impressed by the people he encountered during the competition.
“Everyone I met and talked to came from all kinds of backgrounds. All of them have their own greatness in terms of personalities,” said Voon who was coached by taxation lecturer Dr Ling Chui Ching.
Ling got the university’s library to purchase the latest edition of Malaysian taxation textbooks for Voon to read up in preparation for the regional round.
“Many international taxation e-textbooks were downloaded from the databases of Swinburne Sarawak library and shared with him. I also encouraged him to look at business magazines to get the latest news,” Ling recalled.
They also strategised on how to tackle the topic of the competition given by Deloitte Singapore to participants only a week before the finals.
“In my opinion, the competition was really demanding as the scope was very wide. Both Voon and I were unsure which area to focus on. Uncertainty and extensive topic coverage stretched our limits, but we were committed to do our best,” Ling confided.
Voon also had the support of Swinburne Sarawak which sponsored his participation at the regional round held at Deloitte University Asia Pacific in Sentosa, Singapore.