KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is embarking on a project to build a RM186 million state-of-the art educational park that will further strengthen its position as a leading institution of higher learning in the region.
Expected to commence in April next year, the UMS Link International Precinct (UIP) project is expected to attract help more international and postgraduates students and become a catalyst to further develop the area along the Sulaman highway.
The development on a five-acre site facing the highway to create an educational haven and a home for 2,000 people is scheduled for full completion in 2015.
It will consist of 160 units of fully furnished service apartments equipped with common facilities, a three-star 95-room boutique hotel, a swimming pool, commercial lots, a six-storey office tower, a mini theatre, an exhibition gallery and an early childhood centre.
Other amenities will include a medical centre with 100 beds, an executive lounge, a resource centre, a food court, car parks and a surau.
Both the hotel and the medical centre will allow students and scholars to conduct their industrial training, thus enhancing the university’s role as a producer of quality human capital for the State.
The University’s investment arm UMS Link Holdings yesterday signed a Purchase, Build, Lease and Transfer (PBLT) agreement with the developer Golden Mas Development Sdn Bhd.
UMS Link group chairman Datuk KY Mustafa said the decision to develop the UIP was timely in view of the increasing development in the property industry.
He noted that the encouraging response to Malaysia My Hospitality Second Home (MMH2H) programme has contributed to the rise in the property industry in Sabah in 2010 onwards especially in Kota Kinabalu, while the current property trend indicates the market for international residential properties is growing.
The property value has also appreciated steadily by about 7.41 per cent for apartments and condominiums last year and the figure continued to increase to 7.89 percent in the first quarter this year.
In addition, the coastal road outward to Jalan Sulaman has been identified as one of the four development hotspots in Kota Kinabalu, the other three being Likas, Damai and Luyang.
Mustafa said UMS Link realises that it is vital for Sabah to further improve its competitiveness by transforming itself into a hub for excellence in education and learning in this country, attracting excellent international students and international scholars.
He said this can be attained not only through a proper implementation of a human capital development plan but also the provision of needed excellent infrastructures for conducive learning and living.
The UIP is a project dedicated to achieve this agenda simultaneously fostering the economic growth of Sabah, he said.
UMS Board of Directors chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Egoh who witnessed the signing ceremony, said the project was the most significant venture undertaken by UMS Link so far.
He said it will enhance the UMS’ ability manifold in providing improved and high class facilities to both local and foreign students studying at the university.
“Upon the completion of UIP, another iconic business would be added to the Kota Kinabalu skyline. The Chief Minister complex next to the Sabah Foundation Building, which is under construction, will soon be completed. I was told the design of the complex incorporates the element of beauty and work-environment.
“I am pleased and proud to say that with the completion of UIP, the Chief Minister complex and the existing Federal complex, the Sabah Foundation, UMS, the prestigious 1-Borneo and 1-Sulaman, the Sulaman area will soon be ‘manhantan-nised’,” Abdul Hamid said.
Since its inception in 1994, UMS has produced about 37,000 graduates. Today it has 17,000 undergraduates and post-graduates pursuing their studies at the University, including 507 international students, which represents three per cent of the total student population.