Seri Iskandar, Nov 22: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) and the Malaysia China Industry Commerce Association (MCICA) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote UTP to potential students in China.
The signing on Nov 10 also marked UTP’s inaugural tie-up with a non-educational institution.
The MoU was a follow-up to an earlier initiative by MCICA in an MoU signing between the Perak state government and Zhenjiang city in China to forge better government-to-government cooperation earlier this year. Zhenjiang, with an estimated population of more than three million, is located in Jiangsu province.
Both MoUs were initiated by Mr Memphes Chong, Chief Project Officer of KTC Arkz Group Sdn Bhd, a corporate member of MCICA, in view of the immense potential for business and academic cooperation as the Chinese city is home to several universities and three major oil and gas companies — PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC.
The UTP-MCICA MoU was signed by UTP Vice Chancellor Professor Dato’ TS. Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib and Mr Lu Zhi Fang, President of MCICA.
In his remarks on the MoU, Lu said that besides promoting UTP to students in China for further studies here, there was also great potential for bilateral cooperation between Malaysian and Chinese entities in terms of talent exchanges, academic visits and academic research.
Dr Mohammed Ibrahim said UTP was open to such cooperation and would plan a trip to Zhenjiang to see through the cooperation process once details are finalised.
Besides UTP Deputy Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Prof. TS. Dr. Nor Hisham Hamid and Chong witnessing the MoU, the event was also attended by MCICA corporate members of MCICA and UTP staff.
UTP, which was set up in 1997 in the new township of Seri Iskandar here, is regarded as Malaysia’s best engineering university. It is wholly-owned by PETRONAS, Malaysia’s national oil and gas corporation.
WE
