The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:06 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU: Sabah appears to be on China's investment and tourism radar. It is evident in the country's top leaders had made it a point to visit the state said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman. He added that the recent visit by China's National Peoples' Congress Standing Committee chairman Wu Bangguo (the country's second most senior leader), was a further testament to this. "I think China realises Sabah has much to offer in terms of investment and business opportunities as well as tourism with our many natural attrations," he said, after paying a courtesy call on Wu who was on three-day visit to Sabah recently. Musa added that his 30-minute meeting with Wu was fruitful. The discussions had enabled him to highlight the many opportunities that China investors could explore with their Malaysian counterparts here. The Chinese investors, added Musa, could consider venturing into new fields including environmental rehabilitation. China and Sabah entrepreneurs could also look into into jointly developing green technologies. "I would like to see the state and China exploring opportunities in new sources of growth such as information and communications technology, acquaculture, fruit and livestock production," he added. He said Sabah is leading many other parts of the country in terms of attracting investments worth RM10bil in the firstthree months of the year. "This is due to our stable and business friendly climate apart from aprudent government," he added. He said European and American investors are also attracted to Sabah due to its clean air, unpolluted waters and protected environment. Other Chinese senior leaders who had visited Sabah this year were the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Con-ference chairman Jia Qingling (April) and Foreign Minister Yang Jia Chi (August). |
| Voicing concerns over safety of newspaper vendors Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:07 PM PDT MALACCA: The Newspaper Vendors Association of Malacca are concerned over a spate of wayside robberies involving it members here. The association's advisor Datuk Lau Puan Long said the vendors were easy target for robbers during the wee hours of the morning. "Eight vendors have fallen prey to the robbers this year and their safety is at stake." Lau added that in a recent case, the association's senior vendor Ng Geok Seng was robbed at Taman Melaka Raya. Four youths had blocked Ng's motorcycle and threatened to assault him if he failed to hand over all his cash. Another vendor Low Kim Hock, 59, was also robbed at Taman Asean near here. Lau said the robbers employed the same modus operandi. "We have 150 vendors within the city centre. "The number of robbery victims who did not report their cases can be alarming. "As such, I urge all vendors to report such incident in future," said Lau. Due to safety concerns, Lau added that the association is mulling to delay the delivery time of newspapers to their customer's homes in the morning. |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:08 PM PDT MALACCA: Seventy-nine technical schools under the purview of Education Ministry nationwide will be upgraded to vocational colleges by next year. Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said the move was in conjunction with the national agenda to have at least 80% of highly skilled workforce in the job market by 2020. "These vocational colleges will offer diploma qualifications through the pioneer programme started earlier this year. "We will fully upgrade all technical schools under the ministry to vocational colleges by 2013," he told reporters after closing the National Vocational Education Conference here recently. He said the current figure of some 3,500 or 1% of all PMR students who enrol in vocational education would increase to 5% or about 15,000 next year following the transformation. "We expect the figure to increase further to about 90,000 or 20% of PMR students enrolling in vocational colleges by 2020." Dr Mohd Puad said that upon completing PMR, students would have the options to enrol in vocational colleges for a four-year fulltime course. "This is suitable for students who are both academically and technically strong. "For those who are more interested in learning the technical knowledge, they can also enrol in a two-year apprentice programme, which provides extensive industrial exposure," he added. A total of 15 secondary schools have pioneered in implementing the Basic Vocational Education (PAV) curriculum this year, he said, adding that another 135 schools have been identified to introduce the PAV curriculum by 2014. As a means to promote vocational education as part of the nation's mainstream education, he said the courses' structure would also see more emphasis on technical skill training than academic learning. |
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