KUCHING, April 21 — The Sarawak government would consider sending graduates students to do postgraduate studies overseas upon the implementation of free tertiary education initiative in Sarawak-owned universities by 2026, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg in Leeds, United Kingdom on Saturday.

In a posting on Premier of Sarawak’s official Facebook page ‘Sarawakku’, he said these postgraduate students would be among the learned minds to form the core of Sarawak’s human resource capital to enable Sarawak to forge ahead with its ‘new economy’ pursuits.

Describing Sarawak’s new economy as an economy built upon renewable resources and environmental sustainability and digitalisation, Abang Johari said Sarawak would need a second layer of leaders in the corporate and government sectors to develop the economy further.

He cited the Sarawak Tropical Infectious Disease Centre in Kota Samarahan as example whereby this centre would require talents in the fields of pharmacy, chemistry, biology and microbiology in order for the centre to have the capability of new vaccines for tropical diseases.

"In the renewable energy space, Sarawak is described as being the front runner in the country with all the legal parameters put in place with the passing of new laws that would certainly require the service of new talents in the relevant fields,” he said.

Abang Johari mentioned these when speaking at a luncheon with Sarawak students studying in universities in and around Leeds.

Earlier in his speech, he told the students of the purposes of his weeklong visits to Leeds and London in the UK and followed by Poland.

The Premier and members of his entourage arrived in the UK on Friday night.

They were scheduled to tour the Drax power plant near Leeds that is fired by energy from biomass, before going to London to seek collaboration with British companies to develop compound semiconductors.

The last leg of the trip will be to Poland to take part in the Central Europe Hydrogen Forum.

Also present at the luncheon were Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Sarawak Government Secretary Datuk Amar Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki and Chief Political Secretary to the Premier Fazzruddin Abdul Rahman.

Meanwhile, the Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) reported the luncheon was held in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

The nearly 20 Sarawak students present are from the University of Sheffield, University of Bristol, London Imperial College, University of Manchester, London School of Economics, Oxford University, and Leeds University. — The Borneo Post