Malaysia's Halal International Selangor to be flagship halal training and education centre

Malaysia's Halal International Selangor (HIS) is set to be a flagship halal training and education centre, Bernama reported. The centre will provide both face-to-face and online training.

This follows the signing of a memorandum of agreement between HIS and the Halal Academy, at the Malaysia International Halal Showcase in Kuala Lumpur yesterday (4 April).

On the significance of this, HIS Chief Operating Officer Zulkarnine Shah Zainal Abidin said: "This collaboration signifies a synergistic step forward for the benefit of the halal industry by being able to fully support the Malaysian Islamic Development Department's role by facilitating knowledge development in delivering world-class halal professionals."

As part of the agreement signed, the halal training will be both comprehensive and accessible via the Halal Academy's online learning portal.

Zulkarnine added that this "strategic move between HIS and the Halal Academy would spark the nucleus of Selangor's halal human capital development."

He also said the collaboration would "further enhance efforts to position Selangor as the leader in the halal industry."

"We believe this MoA will help fortify the efforts made by Invest Selangor and the state government in attracting investors from around the world to view Selangor as the catalyst of growth and development in the halal industry for the region."

The education ministry clarifies points on discrimination in recruitment

In other news, the Ministry of Education Malaysia has clarified that it has never set any discriminatory conditions against certain races, genders or beliefs in its requests for staff recruitment to the Education Service Commission.

This clarification was made with reference to a report by Malaysian Nanban claiming the education sector did not provide job opportunities for the Indian community, which the ministry said was "not true and baseless."

In a statement on its Facebook page, the ministry said: "KPM and SPP do not set aside any race because (the) education is a sector that requires the involvement of all qualified people regardless of race and religion to provide for quality education."

The statement also added that the recruitment of education staff is "handled by SPP professionally and with integrity based on merit and qualification of candidates."

The government has no intention to limit civil servants' term of office

The Malaysian government has no intention to limit the term of office for certain civil servant posts, despite being seen as a move to "curb corruption and power abuse among civil servants," as reported in a separate article Bernama.

In fact, according to Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, who spoke during a 'question and answer' sesson at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, corruption among civil servants was still under control.

He said: "So far, there has been no decision to limit the term of office of civil servants for certain posts. It is subjected to existing regulations depending on vacancies and time.

"We have yet to regard this (corruption) as problematic. In desperate circumstances, we may make the change."

He also added that in 2018, a total of 418 civil servants were arrested for corruption, with 140 charged in court so far.

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