PUTRAJAYA, Nov 9 — Malaysia and China have agreed to establish Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to provide Malaysian students skills in new fields, including electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, communications and digitalisation, and solar power technology.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the TVET institutions will be supervised by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and the students will get exposure from Chinese companies operating in Malaysia and be hired by them as well.
He said the matter was agreed upon during a bilateral meeting with the Vice-President of China Han Zheng, who is on a four-day official visit to Malaysia from yesterday to Nov 11.
“I will present the matter to the Cabinet for approval,” said Zahid to the media after receiving a courtesy call from Han and hosting a dinner in conjunction with his visit to Malaysia at Sri Satria here today.
He said China also agreed to help accelerate the development of the halal programme as there are 14 halal zone industries nationwide.
China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner since 2009 with the trading value between the two countries reaching 17.1 per cent of Malaysia’s total global trade of RM2.8 trillion, last year.
The total trade between Malaysia and China for 2022 was RM487.13 billion, an increase of 15.6 per cent compared with 2021, while China’s investment in Malaysia amounts to RM9.6 billion (US$2.2 billion), which provided job opportunities for 6,193 people last year.
— Bernama
