PM Najib meets PM David Cameron in London today

The Sun (Malaysia) has an interesting story today:

Another step towards enhancing British-Malaysian ties

Cameron would be pleased to know that Malaysia had amply demonstrated this friendship as it had acceded to his request that loss-making British sportscar maker Lotus be allowed to continue its production in Norfolk county.

And following Cameron's meeting with Najib at Putrajaya, both leaders agreed to set a new target of doubling bilateral trade to £8 billion (RM39.11 billion by 2016 by forming a joint working group to look into this potential.

They also agreed to strengthen the partnership in education and skills training, including expanding Malaysians' access to British universities and supporting Malaysia's economic transformation with emphasis on vocational skills and research partnerships.

 Interesting story.

I hope that they discuss the educational stuff. It would be nice if Petronas could become involved. They have an educational budget and a Motorsport budget.

DRB-Hicom have a University and own Lotus. Mix that little lot together and you get an entity greater than the sum of its parts.

Here's hoping!

http://www.news.utm.my/2011/12/utm-vc-chaired-proton-technical-advisory-council-at-lotus-group-headquaters/lotus-meeting/

 

Proton Tech Advisory Counci (PTAC)l: From left Azman, Ono (Meiji), Tajul, Ricardo (Imperial College), Zaini, Syed Zainal (MD Proton/Lotus), Nick (Cambridge), Peter (Stanford), Hamdani and Zainal,

 These gents visited Lotus in December 2011. I know both Tajul and Syed Zainal.

I used to work beside Tajul... A very nice man, and have shared a stage with Syed Zainal.

Norwich, 9 December, 2011: UTM Vice Chancellor,  Zaini Ujang chaired the third PTAC meeting at Lotus Group headquarters  in Norwich, England on 8 and 9 December, 2011.
The intense sessions on technology strategy for Proton Group of Companies comprised representatives of Proton Holdings and Lotus Group.
Among those present include Dato Syed Zainal Abidin (Proton Group Managing Director), Prof. Nick Collings (Cambridge University), Prof. Ricardo Botas (Imperial College), Prof Osamu Ono (Meiji) and Peter Marco (SRI, Stanford).
Lotus Group was represented by Danny Bahar (Lotus CEO, former Ferrari Marketing head), Mark James (Lotus, Engineering head, formerly from Ferrari).
A tour to Lotus manufacturing plant was guided by Donato Coco (Design Director, formerly from Ferrari) and Michael Och (Lotus Operations head).
PTAC was established in 2009 and co-funded by Proton and UTM.

 I have spoken to UTM and University Petronas about my project.

Tajul and Syed Zainal are both aware of my proposal.

Dany Bahar and his team have been informed also.

Congratulation to UTM on gaining Research status.Proton (Lotus) to have professorship chair.

UTM a Johor (Iskandar region) based public University has just received Research status.
The Managing Director of Proton makes an interesting comment regarding Lotus.
Tony Fernandes received an honorary Doctorate from UTM in the recent past.
I have copied this quote directly from the UTM site.
Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir Managing Director, Proton Holdings Sdn. Bhd.


 “Proton and UTM have initiated a professorship chair to further promote research and collaboration between the private sector and public institutions of higher learning. Jointly, Proton and UTM will conduct research to improve current technologies while developing new areas of research for green technology. This would include the involvement of Lotus.”

I have to assume the MD meant Group Lotus. Lotus F1 already has partnership agreements in place with both Petronas University and UTM.
I'd be interested to know what a "Professorship chair" entails exactly.

Petronas sponsor Mercedes F1 team... Not LotusF1

The news today. Petronas sponsor Mercedes F1. Interesting!
Brawn plus Schumacher = Petronas sponsorship of the Mercedes F1 project. LotusF1 must look elsewhere.

Petronas obviously see the Ross Brawn outfit with Michael Shumacher as a better marketing tool globally than LotusF1 the 'Local Malaysian team'.
I'm sure Tony, Alex and Riad will not view this as a positive.
Petronas have obviously made a business decision, which they are entitled to do. Petronas are Malaysian government owned.
For those who are not aware, Petronas sponsors the Malaysian (SepangF1) GP has input into the Shanghai GP and sponsors Valentino and the Yamaha MotoGP team.
This development does not affect the MUM project.
Petronas have an educational arm. They are not tied to one partner. I have had talks with their educational people, among others. As I have said many times, all the Universities I have approached were keen on Motorsport University Malaysia.
As LotusF1 have been given priority for resources at Sepang, and UTP (Petronas) and UTM (University Technlogy Malaysia) are already partners, they obviously have Petronas involvement of sorts.
UTM have recently signed a preliminary agreement with Proton for Engineering courses... Taken from the Malaysian SUN newspaper.
Speaking after the signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Business Advance Technology Centre and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia last Tuesday, Proton’s managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin said the programme is important to upgrade technical skills of its staff.
I was interested to see Tengku Djan won the recent Drift competition in Malaysia. I hope his brother and friends enjoyed it. I would hope Djan can see the educational benefits of MUM.
I borrowed this pic form Paul Tan
Tengku Djan wins the Malaysian Drift competition

I am talking to my colleagues in Malaysia, and I am contemplating a return in the new year.
It has been close to eight years since I started on the MUM project. Sadly all of it has been spent promoting the project!
Next year, I hope some of the big players see the potential and actually make a commitment!
A slight aside... The UK newspapers are full of Simon Cowells reaction to a Facebook campaign to support a No1 spot for group named Rage against the Machine.
The Internet is a powerful tool!
Once again I have added my journey via slideshare.
A prosperous and healthy new year to you all!

Motorsport University Malaysia

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