LABUAN: NEUROGINE Group of Companies, a financial technology (fintech) developer of mobile platforms for banking, payment, money broking, merchant and more, has inked a collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to explore issues of financial inclusion, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and credit access.

Neurogine Group chief executive officer Owen Chen Chee Onn said the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between UMS and Neurogine Group is to seek fresh ideas and answers, leveraging Neurogine Group’s technological capabilities and experience to help targeted business segments, especially SMEs, recover.

“We are pursuing this direction as SMEs are key drivers of economic growth and job creation, especially in developing economies like Malaysia.

“From our viewpoint we see a noticeable gap of capital and credit access, characterised by market failures and imperfections, like information asymmetries, inadequacy of acceptable collaterals, high transaction costs, and perceptions of higher risks.

“It is worthwhile to explore new ways of providing capital and credit access to SMEs using our technologies,” he said after the recent MoU signing, according to Bernama.

The MoU was signed at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus or UMSKAL by UMS vice-chancellor Prof. Datuk Taufiq Yap Yun Hin and Owen Chen, and witnessed by UMS registrar Luqman Ridha Anwar and Neurogine Group chairman Chen Chee Peng.

Chen said the MoU represents an escalation of collaboration between both organisations from a letter of intent previously signed on Feb 27, 2020.

As a result of the MoU, three immediate initiatives are in the works, with the first initiative to explore the potential and readiness of local SMEs adapting new financial technology.

“We see advantages in hybridising our fintech for SMEs, providing new access to global funding to increase food production, ensure sustainable sea harvests and more.

“Given the current crisis, we think this is timely that UMS and Neurogine will do research on this area and to fund this initiative, we are announcing today the availability of research grants – we have started to evaluate suitable applied research proposals with UMS,” he said.

The second initiative is to expand and continue to support the UMS-Neurogine Internship Programme, a three-month programme where Neurogine Group provides tools and a sand-box environment for interns from UMS to gain real-world experience, critical to boost their employability rate after graduation.

While the third is to actively take on an active role to support UMS in the organisation of seminars, conferences and workshops related to finance and technology. Yap said UMS will collaborate with industry players to develop business solutions.

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) students on campus can start enjoying balanced meals at a RM3.50 ceiling price from Friday (July 15).

UMS deputy vice chancellor (Student Affairs and Alumni) Prof Madya Dr Raman Noordin said this is in line with the Higher Education Ministry’s call for higher learning institutions to provide quality food at affordable prices for students.

He said campus students in UMS, as well as those living close to the university, will be able to benefit from UMS’ “Food Basket Siswa Keluarga Malaysia” initiative.

He said the college cafeteria operators in the university have agreed to be on board with the programme and to ensure that the food provided at a low price was still of quality and nutritious.

“We will not compromise on quality although the pricing is this low,” said Prof Raman.

He said this can benefit all students, especially the 13,179 B40 students in UMS.

To help cafeteria operators cover the rising cost of ingredients, among other things, UMS also agreed to allow them a six-month rental moratorium starting July, he said.

Prof Raman said this can help them with their rental costs as they reduce the prices of food sold to students for the programme.

UMS vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin said likewise, under the university’s #UMSPeduli (UMS care) programme, they will continue to strengthen the existing food bank programme introduced in 2019.

“This Food Bank initiative is not only for campus students but also to those living outside the university,” he said.

“For this, the non-resident and student housing facility centre (PNRF) had also set up a food bank for non-resident students near the PNRF centre at Anjung Siswa, UMS,” he said.

Prof Taufiq hopes corporate bodies and other agencies can come forward to be part of this initiative to help needy students and ensure that they at least have proper food and drinks to enjoy when studying at the university.

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has launched the sale of vehicle registration numbers using the prefix UMS 1 to 9999.

Its Vice Chancellor, Professor Datuk ChM Ts Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin, said the use of the UMS prefix as the vehicle registration number was one of the government’s initiatives to strengthen the university’s income-generating activities.

He said the sale can also directly increase the research and development (R&D) funds of UMS.

“The prefix number UMS 1 up to UMS 9999 with the offer price of ‘affordable’ and ‘definitely owned’ will definitely attract the public to get it.

“It can be used as a collection of pride and identity, especially among UMS residents and alumni,” he said during the launching of the UMS Vehicle Registration Number Sales and the UMS Publication Fee Payment System recently.

Taufiq said UMS has always strived to increase its excellence, visibility and contribution to all its stakeholders, and always strives to improve and enhance its position on the world stage.

“Quality publications will not only be a reference for researchers and the community around the world, but also an important criterion in various types of world rankings such as Times Higher Education (THE), QS Ranking, MyRA, SETARA and several others.

“To further boost our efforts in increasing the number of impact publications, UMS has introduced its Publication Fee Financing System since 2020, although it was done manually at that time,” he said.

In 2021 UMS created history when the university achieved the number of Scopus indexed publications of 1,178 by breaking the record of the number of publications ever obtained since its inception.

Taufiq added that UMS had recently received praise in the MyRA audit for the increase in the number of citations in the publication which was very encouraging.

“Insya-Allah (God willing), we hope that such a positive increase will position UMS as a five-star MyRA university for 2021,” he said.

KOTA KINABALU: Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy (FBEA), Universiti Malaysia Sabah has successfully conducted more than 18 online activities for 88 international mobility students from Indonesia and China within the past three months.

All of the 18 activities are conducted under the programmes of Taking a Different Path: Tragedy in History, Getting to know your Sabah, Crisscrossing Malaysia: Through Folk Games and Cultures, and Tour of Foodie.

The online activities conducted by FBEA UMS focused on cultural talk, traditional games, and tourism hotspots. The activities are unique opportunity for the online mobility students from Indonesia and China to gain invaluable experience, to learn simple culture and knowledge, especially post pandemic and open for travel.

The activities are continuously being held from time to time, to better prepare the mobility students from Indonesia and China for them to feel to ‘return’ to Sabah after the pandemic and travel restriction is lifted at this endemic time.

The programmes and activities were conducted with the collaboration of local students, to ensure there is an exchange of ideas and concepts with international mobility students. The programmes were intended to provide a platform for sharing of ideas and experiences between international students and local students.

The idea of ‘returning to Sabah’ was started with Andy Lee Chen Hiung, mobility coordinator to ensure the mobility students to have an insight of the places to visit in Sabah, and to enjoy it better when they are returning to visit in person, especially post pandemic and travel has been allowed.

Associate Prof. Dr. Mohd. Rahimie Abdul Karim, FBEA newly appointed Dean, stated that the faculty is always committed to ensure all online mobility activities will always be invaluable and meaningful to the students, for them to visit Sabah in future especially now travel has been allowed and hoping to receive more international mobility students.

Prof. Datuk Dr. Hj. Kasim Hj. Md Mansur, former Dean of FBEA UMS, welcomed the idea to further promote exchange programme and continuous collaboration in many aspects. Prof. Datuk Dr. Hj. Kasim congratulated mobility students at the faculty and hoping to receive more mobility students in future.

Datu Razali Datu Eranza, coordinator for the programme hoping to receive physical return of the international mobility students, for them to experience the best attractions in Sabah. Previous experiences including tour to Kundasang and Ranau, Sandakan and Labuan.

Some of the popular programmes enjoyed the most by international mobility students from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and South Korea before the pandemic, including A Walk to Remember (attending wedding ceremonies), Journey to the West (Cowboy Town Tuaran, Crododile Farm), Journey to the Pearl of Borneo (Labuan trip), Journey to the Heart of Borneo (Ranau-Kundasang trip).