PENANG INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR 2018
OPENING SPEECH BY CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG
AT PENANG INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR 2018
10 NOVEMBER 2018
ARENA SPICE
A very good morning to all of you.
I am very happy to be here today to open this year’s Penang International Science Fair.
As we all know, Penang International Science Fair (PISF) is a collaboration between the Penang State Government and the industries that form the backbone of the Penang Science Cluster (PSC). It is organized as part of the PSC’s mission of “Inspiring Innovation”, which focuses on sparking interest in STEM and creating innovative mindsets in our young students through a unique and simulative hands-on experiences.
This year’s theme “Empowering the Next Generation” will be a truly unique event in Malaysia where we can see many high-tech companies participating to showcase and explain the science and technology behind their products. Some of the high-tech companies are empowering students to run workshops for them instead of using their own employees. Essentially, our school students are “employees of the day” for these high-tech companies.
PISF also provide 20,000 workshop slots from over 50 types for student to experience and have fun learning – most probably the largest number of workshops in the world over 2 days! This is the way science should be learnt – through hands-on experiments!
And what makes PISF this year more unique is that instead of just high-tech companies, we have schools setting up their own booths and empowering their own secondary school students to run workshops for other students and visitors. The organizing committee is made up of volunteers and we expect 60,000 visitors to this year’s PISF.
In conjunction with PISF, we have an interesting MakerFest event, powered by #mydigitalmaker, an initiative of MDEC. There are 9 exciting competitions in robotics, mobile apps, software coding and many others.
I would like to thank Penang Science Cluster who have successfully organized 6 international size and quality science fairs here in Penang since 2009, and this year’s Science Fair will be the largest ever.
I must thank the pillar companies of Penang Science Cluster, the multi-nationals, leading local companies and institutions that have come together year after year to make Penang International Science Fair a roaring success. PSC’s pillar multi-national companies are normally competitors for human talent, but they come together through the Penang Science Cluster for a common good – to educate our next generation and build a pipeline of world-class talent needed for continued growth in Penang.
One of the most important role of any government is to create a bright future for our young and prepare the young for the future ahead. The Penang State Government is doing exactly that by promoting Penang as a centre of excellence for STEM education and creating the talent pool ready for Industry 4.0.
To this end, I am proud to state that the State Government has allocated RM2 million this year and the next 2 years to Penang Science Cluster to enable 100,000 primary and secondary school students in Penang to learn coding by writing a computer program. Over time, we intend to impact 100% or all 240,000 students in Penang.
This is on top of the RM20 million spent for Penang Science Cluster, RM28 million Penang Tech Dome, the RM6 million Karpal Singh Learning Centre teaching STEM but also the RM6 million German Dual Vocational Training (GDVT) – the first German learning whilst working curriculum. The State Government has also allocated RM10.8 million for expansion of Penang Digital Library, the only 24hr library in Malaysia, to be ready by end 2018.
Our mission to build human talent and public infrastructure is just on track to help Penang become a Family-focused, Green and Smart State in line with our “Penang 2030” vision.
Thank you.