PM: GOV'T MADE RIGHT DECISION TO LIBERALISE HIGHER EDUCATION

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- The government made the right decision
to liberalise the higher education sector in 1996, enabling more students to
pursue their tertiary education locally, Najib Tun Razak said Friday.

The Prime Minister said the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996
had encouraged private sector and government-linked companies and foreign
institutions to set up universities and branch campuses as well as conduct
twinning programmes in the country.

"It was a blue ocean strategy before the term was even coined and became
popular in providing more places for Malaysians as local institutions cannot
accommodate all the qualified students and not every Malaysian can afford the
cost of an overseas education," he said at the 13th convocation of Universiti
Tunku Abdul Rahman at Wisma MCA here.


Najib added that the willingness to invest in human capital
development had held Malaysia in good stead as a nation.

He said that in just one generation Malaysia was transformed
from a low income agriculture economy into an upper middle income modern
industrial economy.

"Human capital lies at the core of innovation and productive high income
economy.

"No economy can succeed without a highly skilled talent base that respond
creatively to economic changes, and is centred on creating, developing and
utilising knowledge," he said.

He congratulated the graduands and told them graduands that their
responsibility now is to propel the nation to greater heights.


"I urge you to go forth with this strong sense of responsibility and
underpin your pursuit of success with uncompromising integrity, transparent,
ethics and moral values which are the hallmarks of truly educated
individuals," he said.

The Prime Minister presented scrolls to 60 of the 2,773 graduands at the
ceremony.

-- BERNAMA