Malaysian Education Sector Offers Enormous Potential For Bilateral Cooperation

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 (Bernama) – Canada sees Malaysia’s education sector as an area of enormous potential for working together, said Canadian envoy Randolph Mank here. Reflecting on bilateral relations during 2011, the High Commissioner to Malaysia said that Canada’s education links with Malaysia continue to grow, with more and more Malaysian students choosing Canada for their university education. Education was a major focus when Governor General of Canada David Johnston visited Malaysia in November last year, he told Bernama in an e-mail interview on his aspirations for the New Year, recently. He said that in 2011, four successful education fairs - two in Kuala Lumpur and one each in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching - were attended by almost 30 Canadian schools and universities. "We are looking forward to hosting them again in 2012," he added. Canada will also continue to offer opportunities to recent Malaysian graduates to work and travel in Canada for one year on the Student Work Abroad Programme (SWAP) "I hope that more Malaysians will take advantage of this opportunity, information about which can be found at www.swap.ca." Canada has also worked closely with Malaysia to keep both countries safe from international terrorism, the envoy said, pointing out that one of the most successful programmes was the joint training provided by Canada and the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Counter Terrorism to train first responders on how to react to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents. "In 2011 alone, we trained 150 Malaysians, bringing the total to more than 1,000 since the programme’s inception in 2005. The training has been so successful that Malaysian trainers are now able to do most of the training without Canadian technical assistance," said Mank, who said he hopes to continue the training in 2012. "Looking back on 2011, I am very pleased with the progress we have made in Canada's relationship with Malaysia. These increasing ties create more high-quality jobs in both our countries, and our educational links will help train the next generation of global leaders (both Malaysian and Canadian)," he said. Meanwhile for Pakistan, the education sector is also a priority. Apart from increase in trade during the year, the number of Pakistani students studying in Malaysia increased to over 3,000 students. "This was due to more linkages established between the universities of both countries," Pakistani High Commissioner to Malaysia Masood Khalid told Bernama. As for Ukraine, its envoy Ihor Humennya said that friendly relations between both countries have been strengthening from year to year and he is convinced that the year 2012 will not be an exception. He said he expects high-level political contacts between the two countries to take place and people-to-people contact to be intensified. He said he hopes that partial abolition of visa requirements between Ukraine and Malaysia will be signed this year. -- BERNAMA