KUCHING: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman will set up a Sarawak branch campus.
Utar chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik said he would leave it to the state to decide on the site for the campus.
An agreement in principle was reached after he met Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud yesterday, Dr Ling told reporters at the Kuching International Airport here.
He said Taib had assured him that the state government would look into the alienation of land to build the proposed Utar Sarawak.
Details of the project will be worked out later.
Dr Ling also met key Chinese leaders to discuss the possibility of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) or other groups playing a role in running Utar Sarawak. Among those he met were SUPP president Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam and its secretary-general Datuk Sim Kheng Hui.
On the Utar main campus, now being built in Kampar, Dr Ling said more than RM190mil had been raised to fund the project.
Dr Ling said a medical faculty would also be set up at a hospital in Johor.
On the upgrading of the international airport here, Dr Ling, who is the Transport Minister, said a letter of intent had been issued to Global Upline Sdn Bhd to design and build the extended airport.
Earlier this year, he said the RM750mil upgrading works would more than double the size of the airport – from 21,000sqm to 43,000sqm.
The runway will be lengthened from the present 2,400m to 3,700m while three additional aero-bridges will be built to bring the total number to nine.
The airport, when the project is completed, can take in four 747 Boeing aircraft at any one time as well as a B747 cargo plane.
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