Malaysia Institute of Transport

 

 Assoc Prof Sabariah Mohamad,

Director of MITRANS

               Praise be to Allah the Almighty, for the strength and determination that He has given us in performing our roles and striving towards making MITRANS the leading Institute in transport and logistics knowledge.

The past years have been the most challenging years for MITRANS. As an excellent centre of the university, MITRANS is entrusted with a mandate to contribute towards a world class university and internationalization. The performance of MITRANS was again measured through the key performance indicator of an excellent centre set by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia. It was proud to announce that MITRANS was able to meet the KPI set however is now working towards enhancing its performance in research activities and at the same time providing opportunities for post-graduate research education.

               The TRANSLINK project acquired through the EU Asialink has completed with a fruitful extended collaborations among its partners who are now putting up proposal for the formation of ASEAN-EURO School of Transportation to be funded by ASEAN agency and the EU- grant. MITRANS has also received invitation from the Provincia Allesandria, Italy as a partner on a transport and logistics project under the EU-SWITCH Asia schemes. If successful, this will be another 1.5million euro international project benefiting the country as the focus would be on ports and infrastructure development.

MITRANS has also received invitation from KYOTO University and NUS in a collaborative research on gateways infrastructure development. Having been trusted to host ANTLER (Asia Pacific Network for Transport and Logistics Education and Research), a project of UN-UNESCAP which will allow MITRANS to integrate in regional research collaborations and capacity building among members from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sweden and UK.

Another huge recognition is the endorsement of MITRANS to become the Malaysia Logistics Council excellent centre. MITRANS will be entrusted to conduct policy research and human capital development plans for the government and transport and logistics industry. Approval has been received by MITI and the Cabinet Committee Meetings held recently. Some amount of RM5 million launching grant and an annual RM one million research grant would be acquired. Discussions on the working mechanism are in progress.

The multi-disciplinary approach to transport and logistics research have allowed MITRANS to integrate a large number of academics from the various faculties in UiTM and allow the recruitment of young transport graduates of various faculties to gain experience as research assistant and some embark on their postgraduate studies.

The opportunities ahead requires MITRANS to strengthen its structure and more recruitments of qualified personnel are in progress.

The trust given by international members, the government and the industry have given us the confident that MITRANS can go real far to bring UiTM to the limelight. Great appreciations should go to all the staff of MITRANS, the managers and research fellows including the associate fellows for their hardworking and continuous effort in making all these success including all the support and guidance given by UiTM top management.

MITRANS will continue partnering with the transport and logistics industry players, the government agencies and other research institutions in championing transport research and education in the region and achieve the aspiration of UiTM in becoming a world class comprehensive research university.