Northern Region News July 17, 2007 18:27 PM New Zealand To Continue Collaboration In Education With Malaysia KUALA KANGSAR, July 17 (Bernama) -- New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said her country is keen to continue its collaboration with Malaysia in education with focus on development of information communication technology (ICT) in schools. She said New Zealand which aspired to be a major player in the 21st century while Malaysia which planned to be a developed country by 2020 need well-trained manpower who mastered new technologies in various fields. "It is good to see our long tradition of cooperation extended into developing the skills needed to embrace the challenges of an increasingly globalised world. "We will continue to support and develop this country through education," she said when visiting the Raja Perempuan Kelsum national secondary school here today. Present were Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ng Yen Yen, New Zealand High Commissioner to Malaysia David Kersey and Perak State Secretary Datuk Dr Abd Rahman Hashim. The school is among five primary and secondary schools selected for the e-learning programme under the KPerak E-Learning Cluster which is developed by KPerak Inc Corporation, Innovation New Zealand Education (INZed), the Education Ministry and Perak state government. "I am sure it will succeed in lifting educational performance at school level and it will certainly develop in the younger generation a deeper understanding of our two countries and our people," said Clark. Clark and Hishammuddin later joined the students in a 10-minute video-conference with scientist Glenn Powell who is stationed at Scott Base in Antarctica and Geography students at Beckenham Primary School in Christchurch, New Zealand. Members of the entourage later visited an exhibition and witnessed a demonstration on the students' achievements in e-learning before leaving for Istana Iskandariah, Bukit Chandan here for an audience with Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah. They were received by Raja Muda Perak Raja Dr Nazrin Shah and Raja Puan Besar Perak Tuanku Zara on arrival at the palace. After the audience and exchanging of mementos, Sultan Azlan and Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Bainun hosted a luncheon for Clark and the entourage. In IPOH, Clark said New Zealand and Malaysia can forge strong partnership in the development of the high technology sector. She said among the areas are ICT, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and the creative industry. "I will bring back the message that Malaysia is on the development path with its hi-tech sector which is similar to ours. We are looking forward to partnering with Malaysia achieve its goal in achieving developed status in 2020," she told a press conference before leaving for Jakarta. The New Zealand Prime Minister said there are 8,000 companies in the hi-tech sector in her country although its population is only four million. "We are very innovated in ICT, agriculture research, biotechnology research and other areas such as food processing, pharmaceuticals and orchards," she added. She had earlier witnessed the exchanges of MoU documents between New Zeland Trade and Enterprise and the Perak state government on mutual beneficial and partnership initiatives focusing on the biotechnology sector. Earlier on arrival at the Darul Ridzuan building, Clark who was accompanied by Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali visited the K-Perak ICT and K-Perak Biotech exhibition. She was later briefed on the K-Perak ICT and K-Perak Biotech initiatives by CEO of K-Perak Inc Corporation Datuk Yaacob Nordin. -- BERNAMA