Yayasan Sarawak to fully sponsor top student Sonia Tay Yee's tertiary education, says premier

KUCHING, Sept 13 — Yayasan Sarawak will fully sponsor Politeknik Kuching Sarawak’s (PKS) best-performing student Sonia Tay Yee in pursuing her tertiary education, Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said today.

“I have asked her if she wanted to further her studies and she replied yes ... So we will give her the Yayasan Sarawak Scholarship for her to further her studies either at the local university or at the university that she has applied to,” he told reporters after the PKS’ 30th convocation here.

Sonia, having graduated with an accounting diploma, received awards for both academic and co-curriculum categories.

Abang Johari said he had also told her parents that if she could not get a place at the public university under the Higher Education Ministry, then the state government will find a place for her at the state-linked Swinburne University of Technology at its Sarawak campus or the state-owned University Technology Sarawak (UTS).

“We will give her the scholarship,” he said.

In his speech earlier, he said the state is urgently in need of expertise in technical fields to meet the demands of green industries, one of which being engineering, whether mechanical, electrical, electronic, civil or chemical.

"This is important for us to supply technical manpower for our green industries,” he said. He said the biochemistry course is also important as it has become the foundation for the state to churn out experts in the fields of chemistry and biology.

“We are also going to set up a petrochemical hub in Bintulu that requires people with expertise in gas chemistry because we want to produce hydrogen from water and gas sources," he said.

Abang Johari also said expertise in materials science was important for the production of composites for the green industries in the state.

“As you know composite can be created from gas, including methanol and ammonia and this can become the material for the production of new materials. This is very much in demand by the world in the circular economy which is friendly to the environment,” he said.