AP Land in smart partnership with Help

ASIA Pacific Land Bhd (AP Land) (1716) and Help International Corp Bhd have entered into a smart partnership to identify education business opportunities in Malaysia and China, whereby the former will invest in the infrastructure and Help will provide the educational services.

Both companies have formed a joint venture that will look into tapping the education business which will not only be provided by Help University College alone, but with other joint ventures with local universities and overseas educational providers as well.

Help president Datuk Dr Paul Chan said for a start, the partnership will enable Help to provide courses to AP Land's three existing educational outfits in Rawang in Selangor, Jalan Ipoh in Kuala Lumpur and Changshu in China.

"Through this partnership, AP Land will provide the hardware which is the campuses, while we will provide the educational expertise on what courses to conduct," he told a joint press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
AP Land managing director Low Gee Teong said the training centre in Changshu, which is part of a huge commercial development worth RM407 million, will be completed by August and will be opened for business this October.

"For a start, we will provide retail management, automotive training and English courses. We expect to cater a total of 500 students in the coming years and have plans to expand to other market driven courses to cater to the rapid business growth in China.

"Changshu is one of the richest areas in China with fast growth and has a lot of businesses being invested in this area. For instance, the automotive-related courses will be able to benefit the Toyota research and development centre that will be opened next to our building by end of the year," he said.

Low said all courses provided by the training centre have been accredited by the Chinese government and there were plans to offer a more varied type of courses in the future.

Besides the collaboration in Changshu, the property developer, which is best known for its Low Yat shopping centre arm, will also be working with Help to provide educational opportunities in AP Land's other educational outfits such as Victoria College in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and a 50-acre campus and a retirement home which will be developed in Bandar Tasik Puteri in Rawang within the next three years.


By June Ramlee
Business Times