By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Jan 14: UiTM Sarawak hopes to have more education cooperation with China in the near future, in tandem with the Belt and Road Initiative supported by the Sarawak government.
The university’s rector Prof Datuk Dr Jamil Hamali pointed out that China has the capacity to assist other Asian nations, including Malaysia, to grow with it.
“We are all aware of the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative in propelling the development in our state as explained by the Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg).
“Our university has always been a great supporter of our Sarawak government’s plans. Our government acknowledges that we need to harness all opportunities to bring greater value to society both economically and socially,” he said, adding that they played a key role in driving the state’s economic growth.
Under the esteemed leadership of Abang Johari, he pointed out that it was without doubt that the state was headed in the right direction to be on par with other developed nations.
“We have to aknowledge that in Asia, China’s development is excellent in many aspects,” he told attendees at the 1st International Conference on Belt and Road (ICBR) 2020 held at UiTM Sarawak Campus 2 in Kota Samarahan here today.
Jamil thus emphasised that this conference was initiated for that purpose as it provided an avenue for business owners, academics, administrators, policy makers and stakeholders from government institutions and students from institutions of higher learning to share and create a network of exceptional value.
The two-day conference, which started today and is themed ‘Towards Educational Cooperation and Regional Development’, was organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak, ACEC Association and Beijing Wuzi University.
The event today also witnessed the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) between UiTM and Sarawak Energy on acquiring the best talents from the university to be employed at the utility company; as well as between UiTm and Global China Centre Cultural Service (GCC) to collaborate on research and postgraduate programmes for students, lecturers and researchers.
Jamil highlighted that UiTM have so far had inked 10 MoUs with China universities, of which five were signed by UiTM Sarawak in September last year.
The MoUs were with Pharmaceutical University, Jiangsu University, Anhui University, Anhui Medical Unicersity and Beijing Wuzi University.
For this conference, there were 10 keynote speakers from Singapore, China and Malaysia who spoke on various subjects related to the Belt and Road Initiative, especially on areas of educational collaboration and regional development.
On the second day, there will be roundtable discussions for participants from various countries to discuss future cross-boundaries collaborations.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing represented Abang Johari to grace the opening of the conference which was attended by about 200 participants from various countries including Malaysia, Brunei, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Yemen.
Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong, Consul General for the People’s Republic of China in Kuching Cheng Guangzhong, ACEC Association executive director Yang Chengcheng, Beijing Wuzi University International Relations director Prof Han Xin and Sarawak Energy Group chief executive Datu Sharbini Suhaili were present. — DayakDaily
