KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) staff have been urged to be more creative and innovative in their daily duties to ensure the quality of service delivery.

Making the call, UMS Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin said the university has always work to improve its information technology infrastructure.

“This is to support the transformation of service and information delivery while adapting to the new normal,” he said in his New Year’s address.

“In addition, the UMS management will also implement a number of plans and initiatives related to human resource sustainability aimed at empowering and increasing the productivity of its staff.

“This is in line with the UMS Strategic Plan to achieve its vision and mission, as well as to ensure UMS remains relevant and continue to become ‘a university for the society’.”

Taufiq is also optimistic that UMS will continue to achieve success not only at the national but also international level, and will continue to benefit the country, State and the community.

“I hope UMS staff will continue to strengthen their cooperation for the excellence of the university.

“We also need to continue to inculcate and enhance the core values of UMS, namely dynamics, sustainability, integrity, integrity, fairness and contentment in ourselves,” he said.

Recapping the challenging year of 2020, he said the challenges displayed the relevance of UMS as a higher learning institutions and research centre by helping the government and the people to face the pandemic.

“UMS’ contributions can be seen through various innovations such as the production of personal protective equipment (PPE), including the Covinizer hand sanitiser and the Covi-Pro face shield, as well as facilities like the Covid Sampling Chamber and the Covid Sanitation Tunnel.

“The PPEs had been distributed to frontliners, students and staff. The university’s lecturers and researchers had also helped affected communities such as the initiative to help tomato farmers in Ranau processed their products.”

The university’s research laboratories, he said, were also used to conduct more than 4,000 Covid-19 sample screening tests.

“I hope 2021 will be welcomed with a new spirit and positivity to create more successes amidst the coming challenges,” he said. 

Source: http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/164421/be-more-creative-and-innovative-ums-staff-told/

KOTA KINABALU: The Association of Management and Professional Officers of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (PPUMS) organised its 14th Annual General Meeting under new norms online recently.

UMS Vice Chancellor, Prof Datuk ChM Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin (pic) emphasised accountability and reminded officers to use time and resources effectively and to the best of their ability to avoid wastage due to inefficiency.

Taufiq also called on all officers to carry out their duties with the right and sincere intention to produce blessings in life, while emphasising the values of integrity, honesty, cleanliness and trust.

“Self-interest should be set aside because the interests of the university are greater,” he said.

Taufiq also suggested that in an atmosphere of new norms, officers be able to utilise technology and gadgets when carrying out tasks without compromising communication delivery.

Earlier, PPUMS President for 2019/2021 session, Mohamad Edrus Othman in his welcoming speech informed that various activities have been held PPUMS covering aspects of improving professionalism, skills, welfare, recreation as well as brotherhood and understanding for the benefit of all members in particular and UMS in general.

According to him, PPUMS has collaborated with the university in organizing workshops to improve the professionalism and skills of officers.

“In line with the main objective of PPUMS which plays a role in looking after the welfare of members, the association has also made contributions to its members, including those affected by disasters or the loss of family members,” he said.

Mohamad Edrus also called on all members to manage the current changes professionally and increase their productivity by prioritizing integrity, maximizing the use of technology, being creative and adapting work to daily responsibilities.

The MATPPUMS-14 held online was attended by 149 members consisting of UMS management and professional officers. At the event, e-Bulletin PPUMS was also launched, as a writing platform for P&P staff.

Source: https://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/164367/vc-reminds-ums-officials-to-avoid-wastage/

LABUAN – Having endured the pain inflicted by COVID-19 in 2020, Labuan's economy is on a bumpy road to recovery in 2021, according to Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) senior lecturer Dr Romzi Ationg. 

He said the duty-free island, a federal territory like Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur, has taken a beating on the economic front as COVID-19 has “rubbed salt into an open wound” in 2020.

But there is still hope if fundamental changes could be made to deal with the unprecedented impact of the pandemic, both in terms of policymaking and the way businesses operate, he told Bernama in an interview.

"There is a need for federal government consensus for fundamental changes in the way Labuan is to be managed. 

"It is generally agreed that changes should include severance of the collusive link between government and business as well as financial institutions," he said. 

Dr Romzi said the pandemic posed formidable challenges to policymakers and had direct and indirect effects on the interconnected global economy.

"Labuan, being Malaysia's international business and financial centre contributing hundreds of millions (of ringgit) in taxes to the government's coffers, was not spared the impact," he added.

"On the supply side, (the COVID-19) infections reduced labour supply and productivity, the lockdowns resulted in business closures and supply disruptions. 

“On the demand side, there were layoffs and the loss of income (from morbidity, quarantine and unemployment) and the worsened economic prospects reduced household consumption and firms’ investment," he said. 

He is of the view that the extreme uncertainty about the path, duration, magnitude and impact of the pandemic could pose a vicious cycle of dampening business and consumer confidence and tightening financial conditions, which could lead to loss of jobs and investment. 

He said the key challenges for any empirical economic analysis of COVID-19 are how to identify this unprecedented shock, how to account for its non-linear effects, how to consider its cross-country spillovers and how to quantify the uncertainty surrounding forecasts, given its unprecedented nature.

To be sure, it had not been smooth sailing for Labuan's economy even before the deadly coronavirus struck early in 2020.

On April 29, 2019, Labuan business chambers submitted a memorandum to the Federal Territories Ministry with a list of 15 economic issues which it said were "sine qua non" for economic recovery. The pandemic simply exacerbated the situation.

Bernama had reported that at least 29 entertainment outlets and sports bars, including karaoke outlets, on the island were at risk of closure after the owners incurred losses to the tune of RM6 million since the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on March 18.

The losses led to concerns over the future of the local entertainment industry.

Associate Professor Dr Geoffrey H. Tanakinjal of Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus (UMSKAL) said Labuan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was RM7.6 billion in 2019 according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. 

The main economic leader was the services industry with a contribution of RM5.9 billion (2018: RM5.5 billion), followed by the manufacturing industry (RM1.4 billion), construction industry (RM177.2 million) and the agriculture industry (RM133.3 million), all of which reported increased values.

The situation changed in 2020 due to the pandemic which suspended global economic activity, said Geoffrey, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of International Finance.

"Owing to the need to remain indoors, work losses were inevitable. While work from home has been implemented, the fact that companies are not used to closing their doors during business hours has not changed.

"Labuan also depends on outsiders to spur the island's tax haven status. Education is a significant segment," he said.

He said UMSKAL has a capacity for 1, 900 students, the Labuan Matriculation College usually has around 2,100 students and the Labuan Vocational College and the Industrial Training Institute, 500 each. 

"Approximately 5,000 students from outside Labuan spend on their daily needs, food, transport and accommodation. The trickle-down effect of student spending has had a huge impact on Labuan's economic environment as their spending directly impacted small business establishments.

"Imagine, if one student spends RM100 per month, the total group spending will be RM500,000 per month or RM6 million per year," said Geoffrey. 

Source: https://www.bernama.com/en/general/news.php?id=1917337

KOTA KINABALU: Professor Dr Felix Tongkul, probably Sabah’s most well-known geologist, clocked out to his retirement as Director of Natural Disaster Research Centre at the Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), yesterday (Wednesday). 

Asked what he considered was the greatest geological event in his career, he said:  

“Mapping the geology of Maliau Basin was one of the toughest and satisfying work I did. It was the toughest because of its remoteness.”

“We had to spend several weeks walking along the unchartered Maliau River and its tributaries to map the rock units and location of the waterfalls. We had to climb numerous waterfalls to continue upstream,” he recalled.  

The answer was quite a surprise because Daily Express expected him to cite the strong 5.9 Richter-Scale quake on June 5, 2015 which killed 18 people on Mt Kinabalu. 

Didn’t that strongest quake ever recorded in Malaysia shock him? 

“Not really. I expected something like that would happen,” he said.

Asked why he had expected something like that to happen, Tongkul added: 

“This is expected based on the return period of earthquake in the Ranau area, which is approximately 25 years for earthquake with magnitude above 5. Previous recorded earthquakes were in 1991 and 1996, although the 2015 earthquake was much larger than I expected.”

Asked what he thinks is Sabah’s greatest geological masterpiece and why, he said:

“The location of Sabah right at the juncture of three tectonic plates - the Eurasia, Philippines and the Australia plates - colliding with each other since 100 million years ago produced the magnificent geology of Sabah, where we have uplifted ancient oceanic crust, such as Mt Tambuyukon  and Mt Tavai in Telupid, uplifted deep water sediments, such as the Crocker and Trusmadi Ranges, uplifted shallow water sediments, such as Maliau Basin, the volcanoes, such as those in Tawau Hills and magma intrusion such as the Mount Kinabalu granite.”

Source: https://www.subscriber-dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?id=163921