SARAWAK will spend RM190 million on building a research centre for infectious diseases in the Samarahan division, Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said today.

“(The blueprint has) already (left) the drawing board. Just a matter of implementation,” he told reporters.

Describing the centre as the first of its kind in the country, the chief minister said construction work would start next year and the target date for completion is 2024.

Research work at the centre will be on a collaborative basis among academics, local researchers and scientists, governments, pharmaceutical companies as well as with international institutions with a reputation in research and development (R&D).

A few international institutions have been identified for the collaborative effort and he named them as Cambridge and Oxford universities and the Imperial College of London, which is known as the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.

“We hope the pharmaceutical industry, especially those that are involved in medical research, will come and work together with us,” Abang Johari said when opening an international conference on innovative sciences and technologies for research and education (InnoSTRE) at the UiTM Sarawak branch Samarahan campus. 

He said the new centre would also conduct research on Covid-19, the current pandemic that has infected nearly 60 million people worldwide and killed 1.4 million. – November 25, 2020.