PUTRAJAYA: 3 April 2013 – YBhg Dato’ Dr Madinah Mohamad, Secretary General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation received a courtesy call by Professor Dr. Gretchen Kalonji, Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Natural Sciences, this morning. Dr. Kalonji was accompanied by Dr. Pilar Alvarez-Laso, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences. Dr. Kalonji is currently on a working visit to Malaysia from 1st until 5th April 2013.
During the hour-long meeting, many issues of interest were discussed, including the setting up of an academy of social and humanity sciences in Malaysia and the use of the UNESCO platform to standardise accreditation for engineering technologists worldwide.
Dr Kalonji also shared some insights on the review of the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre for South-South Cooperation under the auspices of UNESCO (ISTIC) which is approaching the end of its 6 year tenure in Malaysia. The review was carried out last month by the UNESCO headquarters to gauge the effectiveness of ISTIC and to decide on the extension of its tenure in Malaysia. Dr. Kalonji mentioned that insofar the review has been very positive and that ISTIC is a model UNESCO Category II Centre.
Also present during the meeting were Academician Dato Ir. (Dr.) Lee Yee Cheong, Chairperson of the Governing Board of, Dato’ Dr. Samsudin Tugiman, Director of ISTIC and Mr. Ho Koon Seng, Undersecretary of International Division MOSTI.
Dr. Kalonji is due to present a keynote address at the Workshop on Sustainability Science organized by UNESCO Jakarta and LESTARI of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and supported by ISTIC. The workshop starts from 4th until 5th April 2013.
