SIBU, Dec 13 — Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg, today said that Sibu needs people on the same page and wavelength in order to stay focused on achieving its city status.

He said that Sarawak needs a strong government to forge ahead with development towards 2030, and to protect its rights as enshrined in the Constitution and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63).

Speaking at the launching ceremony of Foochow Shi Yi Park and Dung Sang School projects here, Abang Johari said that the Sarawak government recognises the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) of the Chinese school to avoid a loss in human resource capital.

"If we do not recognise UEC, the UEC holders will end up working in and contributing to other countries. It is a loss for us in human resource capital if we do not recognise UEC,” he said.

UEC holders, he said, can apply for jobs in the state civil service, something which is not happening in other parts of the world, not even in Peninsular Malaysia.

"The federal government has not recognised UEC, not even when the Pakatan Harapan government said it wanted to,” he said.

The Sarawak government acknowledged the utmost emphasis placed on education by the Chinese community that they set up their own schools and promote Chinese education.

Many non-Chinese too are sending their children to Chinese schools due to the education quality.

"Sarawak government supports Chinese education with financial assistance to the tune of RM10 million annually, similar to the support given to mission schools,” he said.

Abang Johari also touched on the Sarawak government’s wholly-owned Universiti Teknologi Sarawak (UTS), where the state government provides incentives such as UTS Foundation Scholarships, worth RM10,000, for all students to pay their tuition fees, apart from the UTS Bursary Scheme for Sarawakians which pays 80 per cent of the study fee for 100 Bumiputera and 100 non-Bumiputera students, from the B40 and M40 categories.

Meanwhile, under the UTS Undergraduate and Postgraduate Scholarships, the state government foots 50 per cent of the study fees for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

"This will cost the state government RM17.2 million to RM27 million annually. With all this financial assistance, I am quite certain that we can make university education more accessible to Sarawakians, especially after being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Earlier, Abang Johari visited and met military personnel at the Rascom Camp at Jalan Oya here. — Bernama