Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) will strengthen its collaboration in academics and technology with one of the largest dredging companies, CCCC Dredging (Group) Co. Ltd (CDC), through its Confucius Institute at UMS (CI@UMS).

UMS Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Kasim Hj. Mansor and the Vice President of CDC, who is also the Chairman of HK Ocean Investment Development Corporation, Huang Daojin (黄道金), had discussed various types of collaborations, including road and bridge construction, for the benefit of Sabah and UMS.

Collaboration through expertise exchange, students' industrial training, graduate employment, and the development of a simulation laboratory of engineering in UMS were also among the important agendas discussed during the 4th CI@UMS council meeting held in the CDC HQ in Beijing.

CDC was also committed to jointly carrying out environmental protection and social responsibility activities with CI@UMS, such as organising students and lecturers to visit projects and understand environment protection and measures in the construction process, such as Tianlin ship construction in Sabah.

For the record, CDC is a collaborative partner of CI@UMS together with Changsha University of Science and Technology (CSUST).

Founded in 1905 and established as a dredging group in 2015, CDC has 11000 employees with registered capital of USD 1.68 billion and total assets of over USD 14.98 billion. The turnover of CDC in 2019 was USD 5.35 billion, ranking the 1st among global dredging companies.

Some of the remarkable projects of CDC in Malaysia include the Penang Reclamation project (STP2), the land reclamation project in Port Klang, the Sepanggar Bay Cargo Port expansion, Tourism and Resort Development at Kinarut, and many others.

Meanwhile, CSUST has agreed to provide more local training for technical Mandarin teaching for UMS. The three parties had agreed to enhance collaboration in Mandarin teaching and cultural exchange between Sabah and China through CI@UMS as its platform.

Also present in the meeting were the board of directors of UMS, Datuk Vincent Pung Yee Kiong (冯裕强); Director (Malaysia) CI@UMS, Prof. Ts. Dr. Chong Khim Phin (张钦平);

Director (China) CI@UMS, Assoc. Prof. Deng Rong (邓嵘), Director of International Affairs Department CSUST, Assoc. Prof. Gan Hai Ying (甘海鹰); and delegates from the three parties.