International Oil And Gas Training Centre Proposed In Miri

MIRI (Sarawak), Aug 23 (Bernama) -- Sarawak's Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications Lee Kim Shin has proposed an international oil and gas training centre to be set up here in line with the city's long history of involvement in the industry.He said with more than 100 years of experience in the industry, it was apt for a training centre of international stature to be set up here to continue contributing towards producing a skilled oil and gas workforce."I'm putting this idea across and see how we could make this idea materialised to mark Miri as the home of oil and gas industry in Malaysia," he told a press conference after witnessing a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony between Institut Latihan Perindustrian (ILP) Miri and Miri Small Industries Association near Kuala Baram here today.Lee said the competency of workers trained by several private companies here all these while had been proven internationally when majority of them gained employment in the industry in countries around the world.The individual training centres here and the related institutions around the country could pool their resources to form the proposed international training centre that would also train workers from overseas, he said.Lee said oil giant company Shell which has been involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas here for the last century together with Petronas should also be involved to share knowledge and know-how.He said the establishment of a specialised training centre would not duplicate the training provided by other existing training institutions as the current numbers of centres were not yet sufficient to meet the demand of skilled workforce for the industry.Lee, who is also the ILP Miri Advisory Panel chairman, said training experts from other institutions could also be brought in to contribute their expertise.Speaking at the signing ceremony earlier, Lee said skilled training centres should now give attention to upgrade the knowledge and skill of the existing workforce.He said majority of those in the skilled work sector were now depending entirely on their past experiences of solving technical problems and some of these experiences would not be relevant, especially with the changes in technology that resulted in the introduction of more electronic and computerised machinery.