Day: November 4, 2021

IPOH, Nov 4 — Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) has emerged as the top-ranking private university and second among universities in Malaysia, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies Rankings 2022.

UTP vice-chancellor Professor Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib said the university is now ranked 60th, jumping two places from its previous 62nd position.

The university has stood out by scoring the highest for research in the nation and has improved significantly for citation and international outlook scores.

He said the university is proud of this achievement and would continue to improve its rankings.

“We have solidified our position among the best universities in the emerging economies countries.

“This achievement bears testimony of our hard work and diligence in delivering our commitment towards all our stakeholders, especially our parent company Petronas, students, parents, sponsors and collaborators,” he said in a statement today.

The 2022 edition of the THE Emerging Economies Rankings includes 698 universities from countries classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as ‘advanced emerging’, ‘secondary emerging’ or ‘frontier’.

The rankings use the same 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators used in all THE rankings.

On another note, UTP is ranked 72nd in the QS Asia University Rankings 2022 with increased scores in academic reputation, citations per paper, papers per faculty, international research network as well as inbound and outbound exchange students.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

LAWAS, Nov 4 — Plans to build and upgrade the road linking the entry point of the Malaysia-Indonesia border to Long Lopeng will bring big changes to the Ba’kelalan area, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

He said that the project would utilise a federal government allocation of RM80 million through the Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB), which would then be integrated with the Sarawak-Sabah Link Road (SSLR) project.

He explained that quality roads will open up development and economic growth opportunities for the villagers along the route, as well as increase their income.

“The road network is very important. The Ba’kelalan area is very strategic, on the border of the neighboring country, apart from having great potential to increase the marketing aspect of agricultural products and eco-tourism,” he told Bernama.

He was on a three-day working visit to the Malaysia-Indonesia border area, near Puneng Kelalan in Sarawak and Long Midang in Kalimantan recently, in which Deputy Transport Minister, Datuk Henry Sum Agong, also participated.

He added that once there is a good road, many will use it to facilitate the delivery of agricultural products to urban areas and to neighbouring country, in line with the Sarawak government’s desire to improve the quality of life of the people.

“This project will have R3-standard road instead of R2 and I will suggest that construction work be carried out from the border towards Long Lopeng and then to be connected with SSRL from Lawas to Long Lopeng,” he said.

Awang Tengah, who is also Sarawak Ministry for International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development, has instructed the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) to speed up the implementation of the project which can be done simultaneously with SSLR.

“The simultaneous construction of this road with SSLR, under the Public Works Department, will speed up the proposed connection in Long Lopeng, including access roads to the villages located along the route,” he said.

He said that the construction of the new road will also facilitate the state government’s initiative in providing electricity and clean water supply for rural and inland areas.

Awang Tengah, who is also the Bukit Sari assemblyman, said that the construction of the road will also facilitate the provision of telecommunication tower infrastructure, which will also drive the development of education and the digital economy for local people.

He said that the Sarawak government, led by Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, always ensured that the needs of the people, especially infrastructure development, were given priority.

The effort was in line with the state government’s intention to ensure that the people enjoy development facilities towards making Sarawak a high-income state by 2030, he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — A total of 1,047 new variant of concern (VOC) cases, namely, the Delta, has been detected from Oct 29 until today.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brought the cumulative number of cases including SARS-CoV-2, categorised as VOC and variant of interest (VOI), to 3,692.

“Of the total number of cases detected, 3,672 are of the VOC and 20, the VOI,” he said in statement, here, today.

“Of the VOC cases up to now, 3,432 are of the Delta variant; 226, the Beta variant and 14, the Alpha variant.

“Meanwhile, out of the VOI cases, 13 are of the Theta variant; four, the Kappa variant and three, the Eta variant,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said these cases were detected through a continuous study conducted by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM-UNIMAS), UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI-UKM), Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE-UiTM) and Malaysia Genome Institute (MGI).

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — A total of 22,417,059 individuals or 95.8 per cent of the adult population in the country have completed their COVID-19 vaccination as of yesterday, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Based on the MOH’s data on the COVIDNOW portal, 97.8 per cent of the adult population, or 22,893,173 individuals, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

A total of 41,391 doses of the vaccine were dispensed yesterday, with 18,162 doses as second dose, 2,864 doses to first dose recipients and 20,365 doses as booster dose, bringing the total number of doses administered under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) that was launched last Feb 24 to 50,463,307.

As for teenagers who are aged 12 to 17 years, a total of 2,208,399 individuals or 70.2 per cent of them have completed the vaccination as of yesterday, while 83.4 per cent, or 2,623,303 individuals have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.

On the administration of the booster dose, a total of 492,054 doses had been dispensed as of yesterday.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

IPOH, Nov 4 – Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad leads a list of 192 recipients of awards, honours and medals in conjunction with the 65th Birthday celebration of the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah, on Nov 5.

Saarani, 60, who was appointed the state’s 14th Menteri Besar on Dec 10 last year, has received the ‘Darjah Dato’ Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak’ (SPMP) award, which carries the title ‘Datuk Seri’.

Orang Kaya Bendahara Seri Maharaja, Gen (Rtd) Tan Sri Dr Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin said Sultan Nazrin is also pleased to confer the ‘Dato’ Paduka Cura Si Manja Kini’ (DPCM) award to State Legal Adviser Azmir Shah Zainal Abidin, which carries the title ‘Datuk’.

Meanwhile, Mohd Zahidi said the Sultan has bestowed the ‘Dato’ Paduka Mahkota Perak’ (DPMP) award carrying the title ‘Datuk’ to 13 recipients, including Perak State Education Department Director Dr Mohd Suhaimi Mohamed Ali and Department of Chemistry Malaysia director-general Mohamed Zaini Abdul Rahman.

Among other recipients of the DPMP are Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arham Abdul Rahman, Perak State Customs Director Dr Mohamad Saprin, Berita Harian Group Editor Saidon Idris, Perak State Forestry Department Director Datuk Mohamed Zin Yusop and State Head of Protocol and Ceremonies in the Perak State Secretary’s Office, Toh Jana Pahlawan SAC (Rtd) Abu Bakar Romlee.

Meanwhile, Perak Criminal Investigation Department chief SAC Anuar Othman leads the list of four recipients of the ‘Dato’ Pahlawan Taming Sari’ (DPTS) award, which carries the title ‘Datuk Pahlawan’.

The other three recipients are Marine Region Two Commander Rear Admiral Rusli Ahmad, Chief of Staff of Air Operations Command Headquarters Major General Felix Gonsalvez Alexander and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon of the Lumut Army Hospital, Brigadier General Dr Musa Kasmin.

Sultan Nazrin has also bestowed the ‘Paduka Cura Si Manja Kini’ (PCM) award to nine recipients, the ‘Paduka Mahkota Perak’ (PMP) to 23 recipients and the ‘Ahli Cura Si Manja Kini’ (ACM) to eight recipients.

Apart from that, a total of 44 individuals have received the ‘Ahli Mahkota Perak’ (AMP) award, while 47 received the ‘Pingat Pekerti Terpilih’ (PPT), 33 received the ‘Pingat Jasa Kebaktian’ (PJK) and nine received the ‘Pingat Lama Perkhidmatan’ (PLP).

Mohd Zahidi said the investiture ceremony for the first series of award recipients involving the bestowing of the titles Datuk Seri, Datuk Seri Panglima, Datuk and Datuk Pahlawan, will be held at Balairong Seri, Istana Iskandariah, Kuala Kangsar on Nov 14.

He said the ceremony for the following series of recipients would be organised according to the date approved by Sultan Nazrin, and subject to the COVID-19 pandemic situation at the time.

“The implementation of the investiture ceremony is also subject to strict adherence to standard operating procedures, whereby recipients will be required to undergo RT-PCR testing at a health facility recognised by the Ministry of Health three days prior to the ceremony.

“Self-tests using the Saliva Test Kit should also be carried out on the morning of the ceremony, to ensure that the recipients present are free from COVID-19 infection,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency