Abdul Hakim (second right) and Kim (second left) exchanging the MoUs, witnessed by Wong (centre), Jeon (left) and Napsiah (right).

KUCHING: The availability of industrialisation programmes at higher learning institutions in the state will contribute towards producing quality human capital for Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

With SCORE attracting around RM25 billion of investments to date, Local Government and Community Development Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said an estimated 1.3 million people with academic or technical qualifications would be needed to meet the demand of the industries by 2030.

“It is the intention of the state government to have greater manpower supply and human resource development and through industrialisation programmes, this would enable us to leapfrog ourselves to become a high-income society,” he said at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between University College of Technology Sarawak (UCTS) and Korea’s Kangwon Tourism College (KTC) and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between UCTS and Dongsung Family Tour Co., Ltd (DFT) at a leading hotel here on Tuesday.

He pointed out that one of the higher learning institutions in the state which offered industrialisation programmes was none other than UCTS.

“It is hoped that UCTS can generate enough technically and technologically qualified students to work for the many industries that will come about in the SCORE area.”

Wong, who is also UCTS chairman, said though the university was relatively new, it would play a big role in the programmes it offered.

“Our university is newly built with very high-tech features. In fact, it is also a Green Building Index (GBI) Platinum Grade certified building, which is one of the very few universities perhaps in the world that have achieved that status.

“We have only about 1,000 over students at present but our degrees are recognised worldwide because we have collaborations with many well-known universities overseas,” he remarked.

According to him, international students from countries such as Korea can enrol for a short course at the university prior to furthering their studies at other international universities in other countries like Australia or English through credit transfers.

“I know there are many ways of collaboration (between UCTS and KTC). You can come here as tourists and at the same time be attached to our university’s short English programmes.

“We can also have exchange programmes for both students and lecturers or even opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate studies to come here to do research and so on,” he suggested.

Wong also called on KTC to help promote the state’s tourism in Korea.

“Sarawak is rich in culture, adventure and nature, which we are promoting through the abbreviation CAN as the main tourism attractions of the state.

“We have everything for everyone and therefore we hope that through the MoU, we hope to help promote Sarawak as a tourism destination particularly for the people of Korea,” he said.

Wong later witnessed the MoU signing ceremony which was signed by UCTS vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Hakim Juri and UCTS Centre for Quality Assurance director Datin Napsiah Ismail on behalf of the university while KTC was represented by its dean of Academic Prof Dr Kim Sangnam and head of Medical Department Prof Jeon Jongsik.

Through the MoU, both institutions hoped to further collaborate in academic areas such as academic programmes, staff and student exchange and joint research and publications.

Meanwhile, an agreement with Dongsung Family Tour was also signed where UCTS Marketing and Corporate Department senior manager Lu Yew King represented the university while Dongsung Family Tour Co., Ltd director Kim Me Kyung signed on behalf of her company.