$1 Million Endowment From Prima Boosts SMU's Research Programmes

SMU received a $1 million endowed gift from Prima Limited and its well-wishers as part of the Prima Golden Anniversary Education Fund. Prima Founder and Honorary Life President, Mr ChengTsang Man presented the cheques on 18 May 2011 at Prima’s Golden 50th anniversary celebration at PrimaTower Revolving Restaurant in Keppel Road.

Prima was one of the early supporters of SMU. In March 2000, just two months after SMU’s establishment, Mr Primus Cheng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Prima Ltd, made an endowed gift of $1.5 million to SMU to establish the Cheng Tsang Man Professorship in Accountancy in honour of his father, the Honorary Life President and Founder of Prima Ltd. Internationally renowned accounting experts have held Visiting Professorships under this gift, conducting among them, joint research with SMU faculty and public lectures.

Accepting the cheque on behalf of SMU, President Professor Arnoud De Meyer said: “In the early days of SMU founding, Prima was one of the first industry players who believed in our vision of becoming a premier university internationally recognised for its excellence in research and teaching. We are truly grateful that 11 years on, Prima is once again extending its largesse to SMU.”

SMU will use the endowed gift to create an annual research symposium where School of Accountancy faculty can interact with researchers from top schools around the world through presentations of research papers and the sharing of research ideas.