Salam@Japan 2019 Seeks to Strengthen Malaysia-Japan Friendship Ties
salamhalaltravel.com Published as a Guide for Muslim Tourists
Beppu has multiple personalities. From its quirky attractions, hot spring resorts and stunning mountains views, Beppu caters to all kinds of tourists from all over the world.
A walk through downtown Beppu offers you a chance to experience local life in the city—you can find almost anything and go gift-crazy for treasures to bring back home.
Significantly, it's also a popular destination for students and researchers alike, partly for having the KOSEN National Institute of Technology, Japan nearby.
Recently, on the 11th to the 25th of August 2019, a group of UTP's engineering students visited the university for a student engagement programme. During the visit, the group discussed with university officials about waste management and visited a waste disposal site in the area.
Wan Mohamad Syameer Wan Suhaimi, 21, a chemical engineering student says, "The programme is called Salam@Japan 2019. Apart from the study visit, we want to sure we continue to foster the good ties between the Japan and Malaysia."
On the 18th of August, a Halal travel website, salamhalaltravel.com was published by students as a guide
for Muslim tourists. Syameer says, "In a way, the website acts as a directory for Muslim visitors who come here."
"For this, we collaborated with Japan Halal Foundation. For a start, the scope for the website, we have clustered up three main categories to help visitors find their feet here," says the project manager.
According to Syameer, the three scopes are broken into halal food and restaurant, grocery shops that sell halal products and Muslim-friendly places.
Prior to publishing the website, all 19 members of the group helped to scour Beppu for halal products and locations.
As a result, the group gathered three grocery stores, eight halal restaurants, two muslim friendly places, one mosque and one Muslim friendly park spread across Beppu.
Further, the group also worked closely with Beppu's Muslim Association and engaged Imam Altaf of the Beppu mosque who was kind enough to provide a vast source of insights regarding halal products' acceptance in Japan.
Overall, Syameer says, "This is just a start. We want the good relationship between Japan and Malaysia to prosper. In turn, the benefits can be felt across many areas, especially education, cultures and tourism."
Syameer says, "Initially, the plan was to go to Jogjakarta, Indonesia. However, one of our supervisors who used to study at the KOSEN National Institute of Technology suggested the visit."
Evidently, the group was really thankful for the support provided by Yayasan Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (YUTP) and the Centre for Student Development for making the group's 2 week stay in Japan a reality.
Next, Syameer says, the group plans to map the website's objectives across other viable locations in Japan.
Syameer says, "We are really grateful for the support given by both YUTP and CSD. Apart from the groundwork that enabled us to publish the website, we have benefitted a lot from the visit particularly takeaways from exchanging ideas with our Japanese friends."
Indeed, Salam@Japan 2019 is another prime example of UTP's profound career connected learning and industry collaboration. From the work we do, we foster long-term relationships with our global social-impact partners to prepare our students, people and researchers as global citizens.
As a leading university in engineering, science and technology, our graduates are driven to exceed their professional objectives and contribute towards overcoming capability deficit across all sectors and industries.
*This project is under HEB1012 Community Engagement Project (MPU4) which is a compulsory course offered to all UTP students as part of the national requirement subject prescribed by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.
Published on 28 January 2020
