MJIIT to reopen – after 11 years

MJIIT to reopen – after 11 years

KUALA LUMPUR: After being closed for more than a decade, the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) in Jalan Semarak here is set to officially open its doors.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will declare open the building on June 1 and the Prime Minister can take special pride as it was his “intervention” during a visit to Tokyo in 2010 that got things going.

With Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda unable to make it due to parliamentary commitments, Japan will mark the occasion by sending a top official to do the honours with Najib.

Officials said the figure was likely to be former prime minister Dr Yukio Hatoyama, whom Najib had discussed reviving the project with two years ago or Junichiro Koizumi, whom Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had proposed the project to in 2001.

“I hope MJIIT will become not only one of the new mediators of our bilateral cooperation, but an outstanding example of a centre of excellence which will contribute to Malaysia’s human capital development,’’ Japan’s Ambassador to Malaysia Shigeru Nakamura said.

The MJIIT had seemed doomed with no decision on financing and red-tape issues for years. It took Najib’s visit to the Japanese capital to rekindle confidence in the project which is aimed at introducing Japanese-style education here.

The institute was financed with a yen loan equivalent to RM248mil and had its maiden intake of 96 students last September.

Nakamura said the MJIIT incorporated the Japanese engineering education system to enable Malaysian students to study “like they would in a Japanese university”, adding the institute already had six Japanese professors.

“The plan is to increase the teaching staff to 40 by 2015. A consortium of 24 Japanese universities is helping to develop the curriculum,’’ he added. Four courses are being taught.

Former Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie has been appointed as MJIIT Distinguished Ambassador.

“I will make visits to the MJIIT for coordination purposes and it is nice to work with Malaysia again,’’ he added.