KUALA LUMPUR: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) has welcomed China’s plan to allow international students, including from Malaysia, to return to the country to resume their studies.
Welcoming this, it’s President, Tan Sri T.C Goh also hoped our government could allow Chinese students to come into Malaysia to further their studies.
He said, such a bilateral cooperation would allow thousands of Malaysian students to return to China to resume their studies, as well as Malaysian students who had earlier enrolled into various universities in China, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, could report to their respective university, in person.
He noted that Huazong had recently proposed that once the pandemic is under control, the governments of Malaysia and China to consider introducing approaches that are akin to Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) programme, such as the “education corridor” programme, to allow students of the two countries to return to resume their studies.
“Irrespective of what would be the final approach, what really matters is to allow the students of the two countries to complete their studies,” he stressed.
Goh who is also a Director of Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) cum Chairman of Bilateral Policies expressed this in a statement issued today, while welcoming the statement made by Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah that, China is planning to allow international students, including from Malaysia, to return to the country to resume their studies. Saifuddin made the statement following a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in the inaugural meeting of the Malaysia-China High Level Committee on post-Covid-19 cooperation co-chaired by Wang Yi.
Goh hoped following their discussion on the bilateral cooperation to facilitate the return of the students, the governments of Malaysia and China would simplify the immigration clearance procedures for the students, except for the necessary standard operating procedures (SOPs) to contain Covid-19, such as the Covid-19 test and quarantine upon arrival.
On Saifuddin’s revelation that there were about 8,000 Malaysian students studying in China, who had to return home when Covid-19 began to spread in the country last year, and had since unable to return to China to resume their studies, Goh said the government should also pay due attention to those Malaysian students who had signed up with various universities in China, prior to the pandemic hit, and till today were unable to report to their respective university in person.
“Huazong has received feedback from some concerned parents over this issue in the past two years, and some of them are considering cancelling the plan for their children to further their studies,” he said.
Meanwhile, he was also delighted over the Chinese government’s pledge to contribute another two million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysia, describing it as a timely intervention.
He said this was especially true, citing the recent overwhelming enthusiasm among Malaysians in getting the Sinovac vaccine shots, which inevitably resulted in the said vaccine running out of supply.
He also hoped that with the emergence of new and more contagious Covid-19 variants, Malaysia and China could step up collaboration in development and production of vaccines, so as to better combat the pandemic and to save lives.
