Education To Drive Socio-economic Development In ECER

September 26, 2008 19:45 PM

Education To Drive Socio-economic Development In ECER

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 26 (Bernama) -- Education and training through the East Coast Economic Region's (ECER) newly established Centres of Education (COEs) will boost productivity, socio-economic development and poverty reduction.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Khaled Nordin said these COEs would focus on adapting and transferring knowledge and technology tailored to the population's needs.

"The COEs will assist ECER to meet its objectives and ensure sustainability.

"They will help the ECER Development Council to identify needs, adapt appropriate technologies, and transfer such needs to the community through pilot projects or demonstration models," he said in a statement here Friday.

He said they would also provide training to the community to absorb new practices for the relevant technologies being tranferred and to continuously upgrade practices.

"For example, the COE at Universiti Teknologi Mara, Dungun has developed training modules and is currently running courses to enhance the hospitality industry," he said.

There are 12 COEs in the ECER, with each COE undertaking a specific task to facilitate economic development in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and the district of Mersing in Johor.

They involve Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kelantan, Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia (UDM), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), UiTM Terengganu, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and UiTM Pahang.

"These 12 COEs will be managed and coordinated by a joint committee comprising the ECER Development Council and the industry relations unit," Khaled said.

He said the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the COEs would be established by the ministry and ECER Development Council to meet the needs of the council.

"The KPIs include the successful implementation of projects, adoption of new practices by the communities, and consequently the improvement of the communities' livelihoods.

"The improvement to the social being, productivity and ability to generate income of the target population are key parameters in determining the COEs' success," he said.

-- BERNAMA