[CYBERJAYA, 11 MAY 2023]: The inaugural China-ASEAN Higher Education Cooperation and Exchange Week as well as the Digital Talent Training and Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation Forum held today brought together industry and academia to strengthen higher education cooperation and exchanges between China and ASEAN countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The event, which was officiated by Human Resources Minister YB V. Sivakumar, was held at the Huawei Malaysia Global Training Centre (MGTC). It also included the participation of the Chairman of UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Programme Prof. Dato’ Dr. Nor Azazi Zakaria, leading global scientist Prof. Dr. Wong Tin Wui, Vice Chancellor of the Huawei ASEAN Academy Mr Oliver Liu, representatives from Huashan International, as well as representatives from major universities in China and Malaysia. Human Resources Minister YB V. Sivakumar delivered the opening address at the forum.

The event also witnessed the unveiling of the official guest professor list for the Belt and Road Cross-Cultural Industry-University-Research Center (BRICC). The center will bring together experts and scholars from multiple countries and research institutions to strengthen cooperation and collaborative innovation with businesses in various fields.

The forum centered around changes and innovation in higher education in the digital age, which included presentations by Huawei Technologies Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Huawei Malaysia) Chief Technology Officer Mr Khoo Nee Teck, President of Guilin University of Electronic Technology in China Professor Xu Huarui, and Vice President of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Professor Dr. Mohamad Hariri Abdullah.

Huawei ASEAN Academy Vice Chancellor Mr Oliver Liu lauded the industry-academia collaboration, stressing that building and strengthening this “cooperation bridge” would be key to correcting mismatches in talent cultivation and industry needs. 

“Academia-industry collaborations will help spark innovation, build a robust ecosystem and push our limits towards achieving excellence. This will accelerate research and development, lead to cutting-edge technologies and most importantly, enable win-win situations that allow us to lead in this technology age and space,” said Mr Liu.

A major theme of the forum at the event focused on digital talent training and industry-university-research cooperation innovation with two sub-forums focusing on international industry-university-research cooperation" and international talent innovation and cooperation training. Representatives from Malaysian universities such as Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, UiTM and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, as well as representatives from Chinese universities such as Anhui Medical University, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, and Jiangsu Open University participated in the forum to share their thoughts, achievements, goals of their respective areas of expertise as well as their aspirations moving forward.

The participants also expressed their hopes of learning from other industry and education elites, updating education concepts, innovating talent training, as well as to deepening industry-university research cooperation and towards jointly cultivating international talents for the future.

The China-ASEAN Higher Education Cooperation and Exchange Week was organised by Asia China Education and Culture Association (ACEC), Huawei Malaysia, the China-ASEAN Information Harbor Electronic Information Talent Training and Technology Innovation Alliance, as well as the Asia Center for Leadership and Civilisation and jointly hosted by Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, the China Industry Overseas Development Association, Anhui Medical University, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Jiangsu Open University, and Nanjing Forestry University.

This content is provided by SLPR