SINGAPORE - CLIMBING to one of the top positions in a French multinational company is no easy task for an Asian, but Singaporean Shafie Shamsudin managed to do just that.

The 40-year-old joined hypermarket chain store Carrefour as a trainee in 1996, and rapidly rose through the ranks to become the company's chief executive for Indonesia in September last year.

He is the company's first non-Frenchman to hold the position and, today, he leads more than 25,000 associates in 81 major outlets.

For his achievements, Mr Shafie was yesterday named the Achiever of the Year for the Malay/ Muslim community by local Malay daily Berita Harian. Picked from a list of 20 nominees, he attri- buted his success to his willingness to go down to the ground to understand the business, and also to his strong ethics.

Gaining the trust

of the French was a challenge, he said. For example, as a Muslim, he could not indulge in the French hobby of drinking wine.

"They asked me why I didn't drink, and said I was not one of them," he said. "However, it was also because of this that they saw that I have clear-cut principles."

The father of three added that individuals need to push themselves to optimise their potential.

The editor of Berita Harian, Mr Mohd Guntor Sadali, agreed and added that the Malays in Singapore do not believe in getting special treatment. "This would only reduce the value of our achieve- ments and lower our dignity," he said.

Speaking at the award's gala dinner at Shangri-La Hotel, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong noted that the proportion of Malay workers in professional, managerial, executive or technical occupations has risen greatly to 28.4 per cent in 2008, from just 7.2 per cent in 1980.

"For the Malay community, the emphasis on education is bearing fruit and we must not let up on these efforts," he said.

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