By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Ikhwan Hashim

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 June 2015 – The Health Technopolis of The National university of Malaysia (UKM) has attracted attention from a major corporate engineering company UEM Group which will prepare a conceptual development plan for the new campus in Cheras.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the venture was signed here today by UKM Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali and UEM Group’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dato’ Izzaddin Idris.

The UEM Group is willing to help UKM move all the health related fields such as the faculties of Pharmacy, Health Sciences and Dentistry to the new location and a blueprint or layout for the plan is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

If realised, UKM would be the first public university to set up the Health Technopolis at its medical and health campus here where medical research and development can be carried out through collaboration between researchers and the corporate sector.

Prof Noor Azlan, in his opening remarks before the signing, said it is currently mobilising its medical and health sciences faculties to merge and integrate their academic and research facilities, the hospitals and medical centres into an integrated health campus.

He pointed out that UKM’s plan to set up the Health Technopolis has been vindicated when it was incorporated into the 11th Malaysian plan which was tabled in parliament recently.

The Health Technopolis, he explained, would fulfill two thrusts of change which were identified in the 11th Malaysia Plan, which are innovation to accelerate development and generating wealth through innovation.

Meanwhile, Dato’ Izzaddin said UEM is willing help in whatever way in realising UKM’s objectives.

The UEM CEO also offered to assist UKM in resolving the issue of graduate employability.

Also present at the signing were UKM’s Technologist in Residence Dato’ Dr Lokman Saim and UEM Group’s Chief Financial Officer Taufik Albar.

UEM Group is an engineering-based infrastructure and services group with an established track record and global operations.