Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg (centre) launching the International Construction Week Borneo conference on Tuesday (May 13). - ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
KUCHING: Sarawak will introduce a new engineering course in construction management at state-owned universities next year, says Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg.
The Sarawak Premier said the bachelor-level programme would be offered at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus and University of Technology Sarawak (UTS).
He said it would be one of the courses available under the state's free tertiary education scheme starting next year.
"This is a new discipline to teach about construction management to meet the need for low-carbon industries.
"Construction is one of the industries that needs carbon.
"In other words, we have to find new materials which are green and construction methods like building information modelling (BIM) which have a low carbon footprint," he told reporters after launching the International Construction Week Borneo conference here on Tuesday (May 13).
Abang Johari also said Sarawak would work with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on preserving and adding value to the state's natural capital.
He said natural capital was a new concept which included natural assets such as biodiversity and rainforests.
"We will preserve these assets with added value, which depends on the capacity of our human capital.
"The human capital must be people who are creative and innovative to add value to our assets," he said.
Abang Johari said both Sarawak and LSE would form teams to collaborate on this.
He said the formation of the Sarawak team would be discussed by the state Education, Innovation and Talent Development Ministry and the State Secretary.
"We are the richest in natural capital in Borneo with our rainforests, so we need a new way to manage it," he added.
