Education town in Bandar Springhill

West Synergy Sdn Bhd, a 60-40 joint venture between MUI Properties Bhd and Chin Teck Plantations Bhd, has teamed up with UCSI Education Sdn Bhd to establish an education township at its Bandar Springhill development in Negri Sembilan.

UCSI vice-chancellor and president Peter T.S. Ng said the cost is still being worked out, but is likely to be in the region of "a few hundreds of million ringgit".

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Putrajaya yesterday.

Ng said the education township will be developed in three phases on a 64ha site in Port Dickson and is targeted for completion in 2016.

The first phase will see the development of a fully-equipped international school with residential facilities in May, which will be ready for its first intake by September 2009, as well as a state-of-the-art 500-bed medical centre.

The main campus, which is the second phase of the development, will house a medical sciences faculty, a management and information technology faculty, a faculty for applied sciences as well as a centre dedicated to continuous research in Blue Ocean strategy.

The third phase will see the development of an incubation centre for UCSI's subsidiaries and spin-off companies as well as facilities for marine biology studies.

West Synergy chairman Wong Aun Phui said the education township project will create a "win-win" situation for both companies as well as benefit the wider community in Port Dickson and Seremban.

Meanwhile, Ng said the Bandar Springhill development has been around for the past 10 years with infrastructure and telecommunications systems already in place.

By New Straits Times (by Rupa Damodaran)