KUALA LUMPUR: As students from the Maldives have shown interest in pursuing primary to tertiary education in Malaysia, the education sector in Malaysia should do more to entice them, says the new Malaysian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Badli Hisham Adam.
“To leverage on this increasing interest, Malaysia – through the High Commission in Colombo, with the cooperation of Malaysian private and public universities – intends to ramp up promotions to attract more students.
“Currently, there are about 2,000 Maldivians studying in Malaysi; we would like to see an increase in their numbers,” said Badli Hisham, who recently presented his credentials to Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
The 53-year-old envoy is currently on a working visit to the Maldives from May 21 to 27 in conjunction with the International Study Abroad Education Expo held in Male and other islands in the Maldives to promote education in Malaysia to prospective Maldivian students.
He said Malaysia had also supported the Maldives in providing technical training through the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) and would continue to support the Maldives through more MTCP courses.
Badli Hisham said he would be focusing on promoting further trade between Malaysia and the Maldives through investments during his trip to the latter.
“I will continue to promote people-to-people exchanges, particularly through the promotion of Malaysian culture and collaboration in tourism,” he said in an interview with Bernama.
Malaysia and the Maldives established diplomatic relations in 1968.
