KUALA LUMPUR (July 14): Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd group managing director/chief executive officer Tan Sri Lim Kuang Sia has been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at the 13th Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards (APEA) 2022.

In a statement on Thursday (July 14), non-governmental organisation Enterprise Asia said Lim's entrepreneurial journey started over 40 years ago when he founded Kossan, a venture with only five people, and manufactured Malaysia's very first rubber cutlass bearings for fishing boat propellers.

The foray into rubber glove manufacturing started during the AIDS pandemic in 1987.

Lim saw this as an open door that called upon both his expertise as a chemist and his experience in rubber products to solve a global problem, leading Kossan to start manufacturing rubber gloves in 1988.

Since then, Kossan has multiplied its range of products and is now a key manufacturer of gloves and highly technical rubber products with more than 7,000 employees and presence in more than 90 countries.

A chemical engineer by training, Lim developed the first Low Dermatitis Potential formulation, resulting in the production of hypoallergenic latex gloves and industry first synthetic gloves free from allergic chemicals.

Other notable innovations which were world firsts were the anti-fentanyl permeation gloves and halal-certified gloves.

At the midday break on Thursday, Kossan's share price added 0.78% or one sen to settle at RM1.29 with 1.18 million shares transacted.