The death of Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry secretary-general Sundaran Annamalai, 57, a highly qualified individual who has served in various positions throughout the world, is a big loss to the ministry and country.

Sundaran who perished in the helicopter tragedy on Thursday served as an executive director at the board of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, and represented the constituency of Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam.

He was among six people reported missing after a helicopter with six people on board went missing near Sebuyau and believed to have crashed, about 220km from Kuching, and the body of Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Noriah Kasnon was found by a search and rescue team in a coastal area of Sebuyau at noon yesterday.

The helicopter was carrying Noriah, her husband Asmuni Abdullah, Kuala Kangsar MP Wan Mohammad Khairil Anuar Wan Ahmad, Sundaran, Noriah's bodyguard Ahmad Sobri Harun and Filipino pilot Rudolf Rex Ragas.

The helicopter left Betong, about 250km from Kuching at 4.12pm on Thursday and lost contact with the control tower three minutes later.

Noriah and Sundaran were in Betong for work related to their ministry in the run-up to the Sarawak state election.

Sundaran had served in the Finance Ministry as the director of national strategy since 2014 before joining the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry.

He holds a BSc Ed (Hons), Physics/Mathematics from University Science Malaysia, Diploma in Public Management, INTAN, LLB (Hons) from University of London, Certificate in Legal Practice from University Malaya, MBA (Finance) from Michigan State University, USA and PhD from International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan.

Sundaran from Taiping, Perak is married to Talagavathi and has two children.

- Bernama