KEY industry players in Penang are coming together to propose to the Federal Government to set up the first Penang technical university within the industry area in the state.
Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) chief executive officer Muhamed Ali Hajah Mydin said about 30 local companies in Penang were looking at the proposal and would be presenting it to Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow after it is completed.
“Once the recommendations are ready, we will present it to the Chief Minister. We hope that the Chief Minister can help us to bring it to the relevant authorities to be considered.
“We hope that we can propose this idea to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad within this two months,” he said.
Muhamed Ali said Penang needed a technical university to boost the manufacturing sector to the next level.
“We need this to grow the industry. Currently, we do not have a technical university within the industry area in Penang.
“Penang’s manufacturing success has famed the state as the ‘Silicon Valley of the East’, but we have no technical university within the industry area.
“In other Silicon Valleys, technical universities are located within the industry area, such as in San Jose, California in the United States,” he told reporters during the press conference in PSDC today.
Muhamed Ali said the technical university should be a public university and not a private university.
“We feel that this is the time to have one university that focuses on technical skills where the industries can contribute within their reach.
“It does not matter if the technical university is located within the industry area in Batu Kawan or Bayan Lepas. It would be best if it is located within the industry area in Bayan Lepas.
“We have vacant factories in the industry area that can be converted to departments or campuses.
“Perhaps, one campus focuses on research and development testing and the other centres on electronic devices.
“Collectively, you can call it the Penang Technical University. However, the campuses or departments can be scattered within the industry area,” he added.
“Having the technical university within the industry area will be beneficial to both the students and the industry.
“The students will have a different mindset when they study in a university located within the industry area as compared to those studying in a ‘campus-environment’ university located elsewhere.
“Industry stakeholders can also work closely with the technical university on research projects.
“The industry can propose specific research projects to the university for it to work on,” he said.
Chow said education plays an important role in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector.
“Training and education are important aspects to support the E&E sector, but we do not have a technical university here (in the industry area) to support the industry although it has been 45 years,” he said.
The manufacturing sector formed the backbone of the state’s economy since the 1970s but was recently overtaken by the services sector as the lead contributor to the state’s Gross Domestic Product.
Chow was attending the annual IEEE International Microwave, Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuit Symposium (IMESS) 2018 at PSDC.
The theme of this year’s IMESS was ‘IOT, AI and 5G: Intelligent Solutions for a Connected World’.
“This insightful and meaningful theme has indeed offered a holistic overview of the future world where Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Fifth Generation Communication Technology (5G) are all interconnected.
“We cannot stay stagnant and use old knowledge or methods to solve new problems which are more complex. We need to keep abreast with development of these intelligent solutions,” Chow said.
Also present was IEEE ED/MTT/SSC Penang Joint Chapter chairman Dr Jagadheswaran Rajendran.
Story by Christopher Tan
Photos by Alvie Cheng
