Ingenieur Vol 58 April-June 2014 Ingenieur Vol 58 April-June 2014 | Page 55

TECHNOCRAT CUM POLITICIAN Datuk Ir. Hamim Samuri, Deputy Minister of Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), a civil engineer by training, was interviewed by Ingenieur Editor Dato’ Ir. Fong Tian Yong at Beijing Hotel, China in February 25, 2014. Here are the excerpts from the interview. First of all, on behalf on behalf BEM, I wish to thank you for the opportunity to interview YB and a belated congratulation for your appointment as Deputy Minister of MITI. Would you like to provide us a short background of yourself when you were working as an engineer? My technical training started when I was granted a Johor State Government scholarship to study Civil Engineering at UTM. After my graduation in 1979 with a diploma, I was posted to JKR Road Division. Later, I obtained approval again from Johor State Government to pursue my Engineering degree course at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering. Upon returning to Malaysia, I was posted to JKR Muar District talking charge of Building Division as an Executive Engineer. The Building Division is in charge of construction as well as maintenance of most Government buildings such as schools, hospital and clinics, telecommunication structures, post offices, government quarters and so on. I consider myself lucky to be trained in various fields of engineering in JKR which is in charge of roads, water works and public buildings for Government projects. Moreover, I was trained for project management where scheduling, progress Ir. Fong posing questions to MITI Deputy Minister, Datuk Ir. Hamim Samuri 53 SPOTLIGHT Datuk Ir. Hamim Samuri