PENANG may be a tiny spot on the world map but it has produced some world famous personalities.
They include the likes of renowned fashion designer Datuk Jimmy Choo, squash legend Datuk Nicol David, and US-based millionaire CEO of Broadcom Inc., Tan Hock Eng.
And there is little-known Penangite Sim Choo Kheng who seems to be making waves abroad rather than in his home state.
Most people would not even know that he is the creator of the ESCAPE Theme Park in Teluk Bahang.
Yet, he is also the founder of a Dubai-based international theme park designer and builder with more than 100 projects around the world over the last 27 years.
His company, Sim Leisure Group, is a public listed company at the Singapore Exchange and is expanding his Penang-born brand, ESCAPE to the world.
Sim grew up in a farm in Kampong Thean Teik in Air Itam with eight other siblings, who were raised single-handedly by his hardworking mother.
After studying at Chung Ling High School, he went to Dublin, Ireland, to pursue further education. He was accepted into the National University of Ireland, but dropped out after one year.
“I have been a nonconformist all my life, and I simply could not fit into institutions. To me, there is a big difference between learning and indoctrination. This has been both a problem and an advantage,” Sim said.
Feeling like a square peg in a round hole, Sim was as an employee for only three years before he quit for life. He then sold his old Honda for RM14,000 in 1993 to fund his business venture. He has not looked back since.
While working on a theme park project in Vietnam in 1998, Sim had a light-bulb moment when he saw the children there having loads of fun climbing trees and swinging ropes.
That rekindled his childhood memories in Thean Teik Estate and he wanted to create a theme park that draws inspiration from his playful childhood and reconnects with nature.
Tourists usually come to Penang for its famed street food, sandy beaches, swaying palm trees, intriguing post-Colonial cosmopolitan lifestyle and places of interest like Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple, Entopia, Penang Bird Farm and The TOP Penang.
Sim believes more tourists will want to visit Penang because Penang is the birthplace of ESCAPE, like Billund, Denmark is to Legoland and Anaheim, USA to Disney Park.
He is amused when he reads reviews online by visitors who assume ESCAPE is foreign-owned because of the park’s non-Malaysian way of doing things. It does not bother him at all.
Sim is commencing his global expansion of ESCAPE to China and Asean region in the next few years.
At present, Sim Leisure Group has already signed a joint venture agreement with Sri Lanka’s Elpitiya Group for an ESCAPE Park just outside Colombo.
More ESCAPEs are in the pipeline and Sim spends his days negotiating potential park developments both domestically and internationally.
Sim has not only sought the outdoor landscape for his theme park – he has ambitions to bring outdoor play into retail malls.
This has brought about ESCAPE Challenge, its first indoor theme park which currently sits on 35,000sq ft of prime shopping space in Petaling Jaya’s Paradigm Mall, ready to be launched on Saturday (Aug 22).
Targeting urbanites, Sim believes demand for ESCAPE Challenge will increase significantly as shopping malls shift away from conventional retail towards leisure and lifestyle centres. This is the winning formula Sim intends to ‘infect’ throughout the region.
Over in Dubai, Sim’s design and build operations are currently working on several high-profile projects such as a ski dome in Oman and the Qeitaifan Waterpark in Qatar in conjunction with the upcoming 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup.
He firmly believes his success comes from his hard work ethic and fiercely individualistic personality.
“I am a stubborn man, anything we do must be among the best in the world, nothing less,” said Sim, whose ESCAPE Theme Park entered the Guinness World Records for having the longest tube water slide covering a distance of 1,111 metres in October last year.
“Penang needs more entrepreneurial endeavours to be on top of the food chain and be more economically independent.
“One of the most amazing projects I’ve worked in is the Legoland in Billund. This little Danish town of less than 9,000 people is even smaller than Teluk Bahang; yet it welcomes more than three million tourists annually with the park only open for seven months a year!”
Asked about his dream, Sim said his life journey has a destiny.
“I aim to create the largest theme park company in the world during my lifetime. Tourists will want to visit the birthplace of my ESCAPE brand; hence I will want to see Penang become a pilgrimage theme park destination, very similar to Legoland’s birthplace in Billund or Disney Park at Anaheim.”
With that, this builder extraordinaire wants to inspire others to adopt a global mindset.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix courtesy of Sim Leisure Group