Japan To Partially Finance MJIT Project

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- The government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will partially finance the development of the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIT) project that will cost RM793.9 million in total. (US$1=RM3.15) Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia Secretary-General Abdul Rahim Mohamad Noor said JICA will finance the project through a loan provided by the government of Japan. "An amount of 6,697 million Yen (RM252 million) is to be disbursed (by JICA) to MJIT over a period of seven years beginning 2011 up until 2017, while the rest will be borne by the government of Malaysia," he told reporters after signing the loan agreement here on Tuesday. MJIT is an academic institution established under Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to introduce Japanese-style engineering education based on an agreement between heads of state from Japan and Malaysia in April 2010 while the project was approved in May 2010 and school opened in September 2011. Meanwhile, Japan's Ambassador to Malaysia, Shigeru Nakamura said the project financed through a loan package from the Japanese Government would be used to provide facilities and equipment for higher level education. Shigeru said MJIT incorporates the Japanese engineering system to enable Malaysian students in the institute to study particular conditions which they will experience in Japanese universities while there are also plans to increase the number of the Japanese teaching staff in MJIT every year. "In order to facilitate the smooth dispatch of these Japanese lectures, we have formed a consortium which includes 23 Japanese universities," he said. --BERNAMA Malaysia