Govt plans to close five Education Malaysia offices abroad

 

The government plans to close five Education Malaysia (EM) offices overseas, namely the offices in Chicago and Los Angeles in the United States, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Perth in Australia, and New Zealand.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Mansor Othman (above) said this was because the offices no longer contribute to increasing enrolment of international students in Malaysia.

He said a series of discussions on the issue were held between the Higher Education Ministry, the PSD, and the Foreign Ministry.

"The outcome from that is a proposal on the rationalisation of EM offices which was submitted to the PSD and tabled to the steering committee on the establishment and closure of the offices of Malaysian government agencies abroad," he said.

Mansor was speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today in response to a question by Maszlee Malik (Bebas-Simpang Renggam) who asked about the current status of the EM offices overseas.

The establishment of EM offices began with nine Malaysian Student Department (MSD) offices in 1994 with the purpose of managing the affairs of Malaysian students abroad.

In 2003, four Malaysian Education Promotion Centres (MEPC) were established overseas to encourage private investment, strengthen the country's competitiveness, generate new growth, and increase the effectiveness of the government and the private sector’s delivery service systems.

On July 9, 2010, a cabinet meeting agreed to rebrand the MSD and MEPC offices to EM which aims to promote Malaysia as an education hub to encourage the entry of international students into the country.

- Bernama