Grand Merdeka Development Sdn Bhd officially opened their ESpace Entertainment Arena on Sunday, 24 June in conjunction with their Hari Raya Celebration. The Group introduced a 3,000sqft synthetic ice skating rink on the second floor of the mall, taking up half of the 7,000sqft ESpace Entertainment Arena.

"We believe that this idea can bring a new, fresh and most importantly, affordable ice skating arena for family, children and corporate companies to have team building activities" said Mr Chew, Executive Director of Grand Merdeka Mall during the grand launching of ESpace Entertainment Arena.

The synthetic ice skating rink has been in operation for 2 weeks and has attracted many people around the mall. Chew said that they planned to integrate school extra curriculum activities with ESpace sports and games such as providing the rink to the be the official extra curriculum skating rink for schools.

"We plan to organise workshops for school students and also sponsor few students from schools or institutions to be trained by the qualified trainers. With these workshops, we hope we're able to help schools to cultivate, nurture and train potential ice skaters and archery athletes from Sabah" he added.

Ice Skating Association Malaysia's President Mohamad Fadzli Johan promised to turn at least one of Sabah's natural sprinters into one of Malaysia's ice speed skaters for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

"Our next target is to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games 2022 in Beijing. We will make it happen and we will make sure that we have a Sabahan in the national team" said Fadzli.

He added, with the introduction of the synthetic ice skating rink, many Sabahans now have the platform to develop winter sports activities in the state.

"We have to work very, very hard because the temperatures in Beijing for the next 12 years will be -15 degrees Celsius. Together with the Ministry of Sports Malaysia and the new government of Sabah, I think we can make it happen" shared Fadzli.

Also present were Madam Kay Yi Chan of Instant Exhibition, Mr Isaac Toh of Escape Kota Kinabalu and Jur Rahmi binti Jabir, Manager of Entertainment Arena (Grand Merdeka Asset Sdn Bhd) and National ice skating brothers, Mohamad Ariff Rasydan Mohamad Fadzli and Muhammad Ameer Iman Mohamad Fadzli.

The Entertainment Arena also consists of Family Karaoke Centre (KMIX), archery battles, bubble soccer, soccer darts and many more. Escape is also now open in Grand Merdeka Mall with 2 rooms currently available with promising new and more challenging games to come.

Grand Merdeka Development Sdn Bhd held an open house at the Grand Merdeka Mall on Saturday, 23 June, which saw an incredible turn up from the public. Visitors were treated to scrumptious Malay cuisines and a number of performances from local talents.

Sabah's Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah, Chrisina Liew and Member of Parliament Sepanggar, YB Dato Mohd Azis bin Jamman were amongst those present at the open house.