Mara's educational institutions will be providing more places for bumiputera students to meet the nation's human capital needs as Malaysia forges ahead to become a high income nation, said Rural and Regional Development Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Towards this end, he said Mara will be offering a total of 27,347 places for bumiputeras during the July intake at its educational institutions this year, encompassing the certificate, diploma, first degree up to Masters level.

"The programmes offered are in the academic, profesional and technical fields, he said when a launching Mara's 12th national-level education carnival themed ‘Converging Interests and Opportunities’ today.

Also present were his deputy Hassan Malek and Mara director-general, Ibrahim Ahmad.

Mohd Shafie also said Mara would be sending 84 students to Japan for higher studies in Japan as scheduled on March 19 and 20 despite the country being hit by an earthquake and tsunami disaster.

"We are liasing closely with the Foreign Ministry and Malaysia's embassy in Tokyo. All Malaysians have been reported to be safe and I am confident Japan is well prepared to handle a major disaster like this," he said.   

- Bernama