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Alor Setar – The University plays a role in helping local industries innovate in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) to help boost the development of Kedah state.

Kedah Darul Aman Menteri Besar, Dato' Seri Mukhriz Tun Mahathir said the close cooperation between the University and industry should be intensified especially in managing the technology in the IR4.0 era so as to match the technology found in developed countries like Korea, Taiwan and China.

“We are focusing on the latest technologies that require us to combine the existing and limited resources to deliver the expected results.

“Malaysia also strives to improve its services and products for export which would ultimately contribute to foreign exchange.

"In my opinion we should come out of our comfort zone and we need to expand our markets by looking for new markets and not relying solely on specific sectors," he said at the opening of the Post-Budget 2020 Forum at TH Hotel recently.

He said that discourse platforms such as the Post-Budget 2020 Forum was timely and ought to be implemented at the Kedah state level so as to provide input to the Kedah State Treasury in formulating the 2020 budget strategy.

He expressed hope that the discussions would be refined and that participants could put forth suggestions that are good and helpful for the consideration of the state government.

He said the forum would give the state government more ideas on how to address the needs of the people.

He also commented on the Budget 2020 announcement made previously which provided provisions for TVET (Technical Education and Vocational Training) in efforts to provide employment opportunities to local people without having to rely on foreign workers.

"This will solve the problem of unemployment among graduates and whatever development proposed is done to create employment opportunities so that there will be no more reasons for unemployment," he said.

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dato' Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani said the announcement made by the government through Budget 2020 that cash waqf contributions made to public universities and endowment contributions in the form of cash to public universities would be entitled for tax deduction. It was a great step towards the empowerment of public universities in generating their own income.

“With this tax deduction it will surely attract and increase incentives for donors to contribute cash waqf and endowment contributions in the form of cash to public universities thus increasing the source of income and reducing the financial burden of public universities.

"This step may possibly allow public universities in Malaysia to be independent in managing their operations through the attainment of waqf funds and endowments which will enable them to emulate the prominence of al-Azhar University in Egypt, Oxford University in the United Kingdom and Harvard University in the United States," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Post-Budget 2020 Forum, Dr. Edie Erman Che Johari said the Post-Budget 2020 Forum organised by the Institute of Economic Policy and Finance (ECoFI), School of Economics, Finance and Banking (SEFB) was an annual event aimed at discussing the national budget presented by the Minister of Finance in Parliament.

He said the forum would allow economists and policymakers to discuss the country's short-term strategies in achieving the direction of long-term economic development and how it would impact the public.

The Post-Budget 2020 Forum featured four prominent speakers namely Director of the Kedah State Economic Planning Division, Mr Muhamad Mahazi Ibrahim; President of MAPIM, Mr Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid; Director of Bait Al-Amanah, Dr. Abdul Razak Ahmad and Chief Operating Officer, Strand Aerospace Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Mr Naguib Mohd Nor and moderator, Prof. Dr. Roslan Abdul Hakim from UUM.