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M'sia Aims 100,000 Foreign Students By 2010 - Mustapa

MELAKA, March 5 (Bernama) - Malaysia has potential of being the choice country for foreign students to pursue tertiary education and the government aims to woo 100,000 foreign students to local institutions of higher learning by 2010, Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said Saturday night.

He said the country's peace and reasonable cost of living were factors which attracted foreign students.

"Malaysia is known to be an education provider and we have to promote it further," he told reporters after giving a talk on "Global Competitiveness: Challenges and Opportunities" organised by the Institute of Management Melaka.

Mustapa said currently there were 40,000 foreign students in the country which he said was small compared to the facilities available.

"The quality of public and private institutions of higher learning has improved. For example, the Multimedia University has more than 2,000 students of whom about 10 per cent are foreigners," he said.

He said the government would intensify promotions to increase the number of foreign students from neighbouring countries, China and West Asia.

"To achieve this target, we have to enhance the country's image, simplify procedures and improve education quality in institutions of higher learning. All these we have done, only need to improve them further," he said.

On jobless graduates, Mustapa said the government was drawing up strategies to address problem which include modifying the curriculum in colleges and universities to suit the needs of the job market.

"This include the entrepreneurial curriculum to produce more graduates capable of generating employment like agriculture entrepreneurs," he said.

Earlier, in his talk, Mustapa, a former executive director of the National Economic Action Council, said all parties should seize opportunities in the services sector as it was an important sector to the national economy.

In this globalisation era, he said, one should be highly competitive to be able to grab such opportunities.

On fuel price increase, Mustapa said the country's financial position would be affected if the government did not do so.

Present at the "dinner talk" were Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Ali Rustam, state executive councillors, heads of departments and senior officers from the public and private sectors.