22 September 2011 : UTM today had the privilege of a visit from President and Chief Executive Officer of Johor Corporation (JCorp), En Kamaruzzaman bin Abu Kassim and Managing Director of KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Datin Paduka Siti Sa’adiah Sheikh Bakir.
This meeting is a follow-up to earlier discussions that have started between UTM and KPJ Healthcare Bhd. to set up a KPJ hospital to be jointly run by KPJ and UTM.
UTM is currently in the process of establishing a Medical School of its own, which is pending approval from the Ministry of Higher Education.
The meeting decided that KPJ will proceed with zoning approval from the Ministry of Health and UTM will finalise conditional approval of land. At the technical level, discussions have already been under way.
It was also agreed that discussions will soon start for both sides to come up with a Business Model for the smooth implementation of the collaborative engagement, which will be a win-win situation for both parties.
The meeting also discussed potential areas of research collaboration between UTM and KPJ that would be of mutual interest to both parties such as in Halal Pharmaceutical and Halal Food.
Currently UTM, through its Centre for Research in Fiqh, Science and Technology has initiated research in halal chemical studies in food, drinks and pharmaceutical products.
At the same time, UTM is a strong proponent of academia-industry relationship and this engagement with JCorp and KPJ Healthcare especially is a further boost to link up with industrial partners, like the UTM-PROTON engagement which has proven to be effective in areas such as low carbon technology and automotive engineering.
This engagement with JCorp and KPJ Healthcare in particular is also a step in the right direction towards capacity building in Iskandar Malaysia for a more effective and efficient human capital development that would contribute to the progress of Iskandar Malaysia development region.
Among JCorp’s strategic businesses include Palm Oils (with more than 120,000 hectares planted in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands); Healthcare (21 Specialist Hospitals in Malaysia and Indonesia); Food & Restaurants (with more than 900 KFC, Pizza Hut & Rasamas outlets in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia and India); Poultry and poultry products (under the Ayamas brand); Hotels, Industrial and Commercial Property; Intrapreneur Venture; Shipping and Logistics.