KUALA LUMPUR, 27 MAY 2014 – In support of educational advancement in the field of supply chain management in Malaysia and Asia, Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) is allocating RM7.5 million to the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI).

The five-year funding from 2013 to 2018 will be invested into MISI’s educational development programme, active research for new innovations in the supply chain domain and its industry outreach efforts.

Announcing the sponsorship at a mock-cheque presentation ceremony held today, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin, YSD Governing Council said:

“Supply chain management is an essential component to operational efficiency. The importance of innovation in supply chain management prevails in the opportunity to create a value chain that can produce a sustainable end-product for the consumers. YSD is pleased to be able to help provide MISI with funding to support its educational efforts to create a talent pool in the field of supply chain management in Malaysia and the region.

“MISI’s position amongst the international alliance of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Global Scale Network, ensures that a world-class education will be available for students. We feel excited at the prospect of supporting MISI and we are very proud of its position in the global network that is already redefining the state-of-the-art of supply chain management theory and practice,” he added.

YSD will also identify five top supply chain talents within the Sime Darby Group on an annual basis and support them under its prestigious Postgraduate Scholarship programme for Masters in Science in Supply Chain Management at MISI.

“I am confident that our Postgraduate Scholarship programme for selected Sime Darby employees at MISI will create some of the best minds in this industry,” Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Tan Sri Zulkefli Hassan, Chairman of MISI board of governors stated, “The supply chain domain has been developing rapidly in the last decade, therefore it is imperative that the educational syllabus in this field complements and supports the industry with the latest innovations to make organisations more competitive. The support by YSD is very timely and we are convinced that it will enable MISI to foster and nurture world class supply chain talents.”

“As the fourth centre of the MIT Global SCALE network, MISI is uniquely positioned not only to raise the standards of education and practice of Supply Chain Management in Malaysia but for the whole of Asia, and I am very excited about this development,” said Professor Yossi Sheffi, Director of MIT CTL.

The current education framework at MISI is delivered via two different categories; namely the Graduate Programmes and Executive Development Programmes. Under its Graduate Programme, MISI offers full time and part-time Master of Science Degree designed after the top-ranked SCM programme created by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) and hopes to introduce the Doctoral Programme in the near future. The duration for the Masters full time programme is nine to 10 months while the part-time course is between two to five years. MISI also aims to deliver a cutting edge supply chain and logistics education and research to corporate executives through a series of short sessions generated to meet specific industrial requirements under its Executive Development Programme.

These programmes are focussed in delivering a unique educational experience to all MISI students and will be supplemented through continued engagement with industry experts and new research providing real-time data and feedback. MISI will also be responsible in ensuring that all research activities conducted by its students meets the highest standards of academic rigor expected of a leading institution.

MISI was launched by the Prime Minister, YAB Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak in March 2011 and is a joint initiative between the Government of Malaysia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, to advance the field of supply chain management in the region.

Since 1982, YSD has empowered more than 2,000 young people through education with scholarships and bursaries awarded to deserving students with a commitment of more than RM202 million to date. YSD currently supports the Program Mengubah Destini Anak Bangsa (MDAB) which aims to provide a window of opportunity to underprivileged students to pursue tertiary level education at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). YSD has pledged a total of RM6 million for six years from July 2011 to June 2017 to MDAB.