JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 29 September 2015 – The Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia, TYT Dato' Seri Zahrain M. Hashim welcomed the efforts for collaboration between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and various Indonesian partners, in particular the universities in Indonesia.

"We are making efforts to strengthen the alumni of the various universities in Malaysia which have members from Indonesia, to promote stronger bilateral ties towards having a better understanding of our country," said Zahrain, when receiving the courtesy visit from the USM Vice-Chancellor Professor Dato' Dr. Omar Osman at his office yesterday.

Also present were the USM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor Dato' Dr. Muhamad Jantan and the Director of Education Malaysia, Professor Dr. Juzhar Jusoh.

In the meeting, Omar explained the desire and efforts done by USM to enhance relations in the areas of research and innovation with various partners in Indonesia, especially the universities with the support from the government.

"We hoped that the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia, who is an alumnus of USM, is able to assist in establishing closer ties with the Minister of Higher Education in Malaysia who is also a USM alumnus, when they attend a scheduled meeting to be held in Penang," said Omar.

He further said that, with more than 85 memorandums of agreement currently signed with various institutions in Indonesia, USM hopes to continue such efforts as well as with the numerous academic and co-curricular activities already established.

In the meeting which lasted for almost an hour, various issues pertaining to higher education in both countries and some joint initiatives to be implemented in the future, were discussed.

The USM Vice-Chancellor had earlier made a courtesy call to the Minister of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia, Professor Dr. H. Mohamad Nasir at his office here and had discussions on future collaborations, including the possibility of establishing links with the Malaysian research universities.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Mohamad bin Abdullah