LEEDS: Sarawak students may be sent to do postgraduate studies overseas upon the implementation of free tertiary education initiative in State-owned universities by 2026.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said that these post graduate students would be among the learned minds to form the core of Sarawak’s human resource capital to enable the state to forge ahead with its ‘new economy’ pursuits.
He explained that Sarawak would need a second layer of leaders in the corporate and government sectors to develop the economy further as the state’s new economy is built upon renewable resources and environmental sustainability and digitalisation.
“As we are setting up the Sarawak Tropical Infectious Disease Centre in Kota Samarahan, this centre will require talents in the fields of pharmacy, chemistry, biology and microbiology in order for the centre to have the capability of developing new vaccines for tropical diseases.
“Meanwhile, in the renewable energy space, Sarawak is the front runner in the country with all the legal parameters put in place with the passing of new laws that would certainly require the service of new talents in the relevant fields,” he said during a luncheon with Sarawak students studying in universities in and around Leeds at a hotel here.
At the event, he explained to the students the purposes of his weeklong visits to the UK and Poland.
The Premier and members of his entourage arrived in Leeds on Friday night firstly to tour the Drax power plant near here that is fired by energy from biomass. He will also visit London to seek collaboration with British companies to develop compound semiconductors before proceeding to Poland to take part in the Central Europe Hydrogen Forum.
Also present at the luncheon were Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, State Secretary Datuk Amar Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki, and chief political secretary to the Premier, Fazzruddin Abdul Rahman.
