KUCHING: The Asia Pacific Orchid Conference (Apoc) serves as a platform to educate the local communities on the beauty of orchids, says Kuching North Datuk Bandar Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai.

He hopes that the conference would pique their interest in this species of flowering plant and thereafter, lead them to contribute towards beautifying the city with orchids.

“We hope that through Apoc, the local communities would learn more about the beauty of orchids and cooperate with us in our efforts to make Kuching city even more beautiful. We give them the orchids, they will go and plant them and look after the plants,” he told reporters when met after the closing ceremony for Apoc lecture programme at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.

Abang Wahap, however, expressed his concern that if orchids were brought in to decorate the city’s landscape, mindless vandals might uproot and steal the plants.

“There was a time when we planted beautiful trees to decorate some areas under our (Kuching North City Commission, or DBKU) jurisdiction, but after two days the trees seemed to have the ability to ‘walk away’ from where they were planted. We’re worried that if we planted the orchids today, they would disappear tomorrow,” he said.

Nevertheless, the Datuk Bandar said should DBKU decide to carry out its beautification plan with orchids, it would start off by planting the orchids at the roundabout and junction near the BCCK, and also the roundabout near DBKU headquarters on Bukit Siol in Petra Jaya.

Earlier in his speech, Abdul Wahap expressed his wish for Apoc to host 60,000 visitors by tomorrow – the last day of the fiveday conference. He also expressed his confidence that the conference had given all participants the opportunity to interact and exchange ideas with one another.

“I believe that the knowledge and experiences from each participant can be used as guidance in implementing and improving the orchid’s industry, cultivation, conservation, research and development in the participants’ respective countries.”