KTS deputy managing director Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau said it was also to mark KTS-STIHL’s 55th anniversary partnership for East Malaysia.

“This is part of our corporate social responsibilities and we are grateful to our customers for their staunchest support over so many years that has allowed us to carry out this charity work,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Lau said they would distribute 20,000 car wash coupons priced at RM50 each for the 23 Chinese independent secondary schools to sell to the public.

“KTS would top up another RM1 million, or dollar for dollar, for the number of coupons distributed, making it RM2 million in total,” he added.

The effort, to be assisted by students from the respective schools, will be carried out in seven areas in Sabah and Sarawak from July to October this year.

The charity car wash will kick off at Bintulu Civic Centre from July 8-9, and thereafter to Miri at the Indoor Stadium from July 1516. The team will head on to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to run the charity drive at Kota Kinabalu Foochow Association on Aug 5 and 6.

This will be followed by the Sandakan station at Yu Yuan Secondary School on Aug 12 and13; and at Sabah Chinese High School, Tawau from Aug 19 to 20.

For Sibu, the charity car wash will take place at Sibu Town Square Phase 2 from Oct 7-8, while its final station will be at KTS Garden, Kuching on Oct 21 and 22. The charity car wash will run from 8am to 4pm. It covers exterior cleaning of cars only and is limited to multipurpose vehicles (MPVs) and saloon cars.

For every purchase of a car wash coupon, participants are entitled to a lucky draw, whereby the names of winners will be announced in October. Lau, who is also chairman of Sarawak/Sibu United Association of Private Chinese School Boards of management (Sha/Sibu Dong Zong), urged the public and parents of the students in these Chinese independent schools to support this charity drive.

He remarked that in the past, these Chinese independent schools did not receive any funding from the government and were entirely dependent on public donations. He said the state government had only started allocating RM2 million annually to Chinese independent schools in 2014.

This, he added, gradually increased to RM10 million in 2022, for the grand total of RM62 million thus far. “However, even with that amount, we still do not have enough and we need the people’s support for the Chinese independent schools to run smoothly and efficiently.”

With Lau at the press conference were KTS general manager Augustine Ling, business development manager Kevin Lau, and marketing executive Eric Wong.