Jaime Lim Nominated for Philippine Presidential Award

printer friendly

Jaime Lim, a local businessman, civic leader and entrepreneur who is an advocate for Asian-American issues, was among a handful of Filipino-Americans nominated for the prestigious 2006 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas.

The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco nominated Lim – along with a select few outstanding Filipino achievers – for the “Banaag” (“Beacon”) award. The award is given biennially to Filipino and foreign individuals or associations honored for advancing the cause of Filipino communities overseas or for supporting specific sectors or communities in the Philippines.

The Banaag Award has given form and substance to Filipino excellence and the time-honored values of fellowship (pakikipagkapwa), cooperation (pagtutulungan), and unity (pagkakaisa). Lim represents these values through his untiring service to Oregon’s Filipino and other ethnic minority communities. He has served countless leadership positions in various business and civic groups. He is the president of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon (PACCO) and has served as president of the Filipino American Association of Portland.

Under his leadership, PACCO joined with other minority chambers in the region to create the Alliance of Minority Chambers of Commerce. “We have worked side-by-side on many different business, economic and community issues over the past several years,” says Roy Jay, President of the African-American Chamber of Commerce. “Mr. Lim is held in higher high esteem here in Portland and works hard in support of Filipinos and many others in the area as well as other parts of the country.”

Most recently, Lim was appointed to serve on the board of directors of Portland Community College, the largest community college in the State of Oregon.

He and his wife Dory Osilla-Lim are active in fund-raising efforts in purchasing the Filipino American Community Cultural Center and other charitable causes. Beyond his service to enhancing minority ethnic communities in Oregon, Lim has given back to his native Philippines by leveraging his skills and training as a professional engineer. Throughout the years, he has designed and built hundreds of housing units in the Philippines for low-income Filipinos.

Along with PACCO board members, Lim is leading a trade mission to the Philippines in February 2007. The PACCO Oregon-Philippine trade mission seeks to attract a delegation from the Oregon business community to learn about Philippine business opportunities. Delegates will have the opportunity to attend government and private sector briefings on business opportunities. More information on the trade mission is available at http://www.paccotrade.org.

Lim immigrated to the United States in 1959, and has since worked to create and promote opportunities in the education, economic advancement and cultural heritage of the Asian-American community in Oregon. He devotes time and effort to numerous civic, trade and Filipino local and national boards and organizations, many of which he helped to create.

As founder and publisher of The Asian Reporter, the largest English language Asian Newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, he has forged a sense of community and camaraderie among a wide array of Asian Pacific Islander communities. The Asian Reporter has a distribution of 100,000 across the Pacific Northwest. The Asian Reporter Foundation also awards several thousands of dollars in scholarship funds annually to deserving Asian American students.

As one of Portland’s most visible Asian-American community leaders, Lim has served as a Metropolitan Human Rights Commissioner, and currently as an Advisory Board member for the city’s Charter Review Commission. In his role as president of the Asian Home Buying Association, he is committed to providing homeownership education and resources for Asian immigrants who speak little or no English.

“Mr. Lim's professional and community leadership are well-known, but it is his continuous passion for community service that is truly remarkable. Because of his work, countless members of the Filipino and other Asian communities have a cultural, political and economic voice in the Pacific Northwest,” wrote Portland Mayor Tom Potter, in his nomination.

Honorees will be invited to an awards ceremony at the Philippine Presidential Palace in Malacañang. The PACCO membership is extremely proud of Lim’s accomplishments and recent nomination for the Banaag award.