MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA BOOST TVET COOPERATION

By Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar

JAKARTA, April 21 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has expressed Malaysia’s commitment to expanding educational cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

He said this after witnessing the exchange of two Letters of Intent (LOIs) between Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and the Jakarta and West Sumatra provincial governments, as well as another LOI between Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) and the Governor of West Sumatra, Mahyeldi Ansharullah.

This initiative aims to promote TVET and other technical programmes to Indonesian students, in line with Malaysia’s aspiration to strengthen the technical education ecosystem in the region.

“We want to share opportunities and open up our technical education system to more Indonesian students,” he told the media after the LOI exchange ceremony here today.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia’s internationally recognised education, aligned with the Commonwealth education system, offers bilingual instruction in Malay and English at six universities under the Malaysian Technical University Network (MTUN), which specialises in engineering and technical fields.

This will be an advantage for students seeking international exposure, he added.

He also urged the MARA-owned UniKL to further expand its international reach by accepting more Indonesian students and balancing the current figures -- around 11,000 Indonesian students in Malaysia, compared to just over 2,000 Malaysian students in Indonesia.

As part of this effort, Malaysia plans to send more students to pursue studies at the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Indonesia, particularly in the field of agriculture.

Ahmad Zahid is on a three-day official visit to Indonesia, which ends tomorrow.

-- BERNAMA