BEIJING: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin wants all Malaysian public and private higher education institutions to set out a clear roadmap and commit rigorous efforts towards building and managing a creative value chain.

In this regard, the deputy prime minister, who is also the education minister, said strong collaboration between higher education institutions and the industry must be forged to address various challenges in creating a conducive environment.

“The knowledge-exchange will help students see the practical application of what they learn from the textbook in university. Without this, college education remains incomplete,” he said when opening the Seeds for the Future Programme by Huawei at the Huawei R&D (research and development) Centre here yesterday. He said the aspiration to achieve high-income status as a developed country was very much dependent on an innovation-based economy founded on high-level knowledge and creativity.

Greater efforts in enabling R&D activities towards outcome-based innovation and commercialisation had been steadily encouraged by the Malaysian government, he said.

Muhyiddin said the government had also emphasised the development of educational infrastructure, student character, curriculum and development.

Huawei, he said, had truly taken the lead in industry-academia interaction in Malaysia especially in the telecommunications sector and the programme was another milestone achieved.

“I hope more corporations follow in Huawei’s footsteps in enabling technology transfer and partnering with Malaysia for a better, brighter future of our young leaders,” he said.

Huawei is one of the leading global information and communications technology solutions providers founded in 1987, serving more than one-third of the world’s population in more than 170 countries.

It has over 70,000 products and solutions R&D employees, comprising more than 45% of its total workforce worldwide.

Huawei sponsored 16 Malaysian university students for a two-week hands-on work experience training at its R&D centre under the initiative starting yesterday.

The Fortune 500 Global company with a revenue close to US$40 billion (RM136.8 billion) last year trains 20,000 engineers annually at its global training centre in Cyberjaya. — Bernama

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 3, 2014.