SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

Boon Siew was born in Hui of China. He spent his childhood collecting pig dung (used as fuel) to make a living. Aged 12, he arrived in Penang on a small boat from China with five friends, among them Loh Poh Heng and Loh Say Bee. He could speak only Hokkien and had virtually no formal education. He worked as an apprentice car mechanic (earning three dollars monthly) upon his arrival. It is said that Boon Siew used to hit himself in the head whenever he did something wrong. He stayed in a keng’ (workers' quarters) at 4, Katz Street, Penang and he supplemented his income by washing buses at night for 10 cents per vehicle.

At age 18, Boon Siew purchased 11 buses using his $2,000 in savings. He reconditioned the buses and sold them for $12,000. Next, he used the money he earned to buy another 39 buses. In 1942, during WWII, his money was confiscated by the invading Japanese army. After WWII ended in 1945 and the Japanese were defeated, he started selling bicycles, tires and motorcycle accessories, and soon he expanded his business to used cars, transports and buses. In the 1950s, Boon Siew went into property development with his friends Say Bee and Poh Heng by building residential villas in Taman Saw Kit in Penang. His work is continued by his Boon Siew Group.

In 1958, Boon Siew noticed the popularity of the Honda Super Cub motorbike which had been just introduced in Japan. He believed that this low-cost, high-efficiency machine would find a similarly receptive market in the rapidly urbanizing areas of Malaysia. Boon Siew arranged to meet with Mr. Soichiro Honda, the bike's creator, and quickly convinced him to set up a Honda subsidiary in Malaysia. The first Malaysian Honda showroom was set up on Pitt Street in Penang, very near the home of Boon Siew. As a sign of their deepening bond of trust and respect, the Japanese Honda Motor Co Ltd soon appointed Boon Siew the sole distributor for Honda motorbikes in the country just as the historic first 50 units of Honda 4-stroke cub were being imported into Malaysia.

A factory was built in Penang to assemble the Honda Cub and the Honda motorcycle assembled in Malaysia was renamed the Boon Siew Honda. The Honda Cub became the best selling motorcycle in Malaysia and Boon Siew was recognised as the first person to bring the Honda Cub motorcycles into Southeast Asia. The popular Cantonese word Cub 仔 (transcribed as "kapchai" in informal Malay), which means "small (Honda) Cub" and is now a generic for small underbone motorcycles in Malaysia, originates from the Honda Cub.

Boon Siew also played a role in the brief merger between Kwong Wah Yit Poh and The Star (Malaysia) in 1974, and among his many charitable causes was the establishment of the Lam Wah Ee Hospital and the Penang Old Folks Home. Boon Siew had two wives, Poh Heng and Say Bee. He died in his sleep at the age of 79 on 16 February 1995.