Jakarta: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has expressed Malaysia's commitment to expanding educational cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). He highlighted this initiative after witnessing the exchange of two Letters of Intent (LOIs) between Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and the Jakarta and West Sumatra provincial governments, as well as another LOI between Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) and the Governor of West Sumatra, Mahyeldi Ansharullah.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, this initiative aims to promote TVET and other technical programmes to Indonesian students, in line with Malaysia's aspiration to strengthen the technical education ecosystem in the region. Ahmad Zahid emphasized Malaysia's readiness to share opportunities and open up its technical education system to more Indonesian students, underscoring the advantages of Malaysia's internationally recognised education system, which offers bilingual instruction in Malay and English at six universities under the Malaysian Technical University Network (MTUN).

Ahmad Zahid also called on the MARA-owned UniKL to expand its international reach by accepting more Indonesian students, aiming to balance the current figures of around 11,000 Indonesian students in Malaysia compared to just over 2,000 Malaysian students in Indonesia. Additionally, Malaysia plans to send more students to the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Indonesia, focusing on agriculture studies.

Ahmad Zahid's three-day official visit to Indonesia, which concludes tomorrow, underscores the commitment to enhancing educational ties between the two nations.