By Nadia Sapuan
Pictures by Abd Raai Osman and Ikhwan Hashim

BANGI, 19 April 2017 – Japan’s Crown Prince, Prince Naruhito expressed his desire to enhance Japan’s cooperation with the PERMATApintar National Gifted Centre (PERMATApintar) of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and schools for highly skilled students in Japan.

Patron of the PERMATA Negara Programme, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor said the Crown Prince expressed his admiration for the programmes and activities organised at PERMATApintar in educating the talented children.

“Prince Naruhito expressed his admiration when he found out that there are successful students from this programme, as young as 14 years old, who gained entry to universities abroad.

“This has attracted him to strengthen Japan’s existing cooperation with the PERMATApintar.

“The cooperation includes increasing the number of students from Malaysia and Japan that will be involved in the student exchange programme,” she said.

She said that a total of 100 students from Japan is expected to be in PERMATApintar this year while Malaysia will be sending 10 students to Japan.

Meanwhile, UKM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) Prof Dato’ Dr Riza Atiq Abdullah O.K. Rahmat in his briefing said, the visit will give an opportunity for Malaysia and Japan in learning from each other and this process will benefit gifted and talented students from both countries.

“The visit of Crown Prince Naruhito can open windows of opportunity for us to work collaboratively in educating our gifted and talented students from both countries and it can be in the form of student and academic staff exchange programme, research and teacher training programme,” he said.

He said PERMATApintar aims to develop students who are competent to take on the challenges of the 21st century who have high self-esteem and confident yet humble, creative and innovative in their thinking.

The arrival of Prince Naruhito at the PERMATApintar at 11am was welcomed by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim.

This was followed with a briefing on the development of education and programmes provided by PERMATA and a tour of the exhibition on Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry as well as traditional music performances by the students of the PERMATApintar.

The presence of the Crown Prince at PERMATApintar is a part of the program of his five-day official visit to Malaysia.