Newly-appointed Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai has pointed out that Malaysia is still committed to the search mission for the missing flight MH370 and will continue to search with all its efforts.

Liow ( right ) said he would be going to China and Australia next week to meet his counterparts and to discuss the search mission.

"(Former acting Transport Minister) Hishamuddin Hussein has already announced that we are going to deploy new assets to the new search zone, therefore I am going to meet Minister Yang Chuantang (China transport minister) next week to discuss it," he told reporters after initiating the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College's (TARC) Diploma Convocation Ceremony 2014 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Liow said he would leave for China after gathering all information from the relevant officers here and would then visit Australia to have a meeting with representatives from three countries to discuss the next course of action of this search mission.

On June 26, an Australian official had announced that the new search area for MH370 would be shifted further south in the southern Indian Ocean, an endeavour that is expected to be concluded in about a year.

The new location, however, would still be in the area where the Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 plane with 239 people onboard last communicated with the Inmarsat satellite before it went missing on March 8, after taking off from the KL International Airport.

Earlier today, Liow who is also the TARC Chairman of the Board of Governors and Trustee, had the honor to give away diplomas to part of the 3,326 graduates of TARC with 48 of them being the winner of the Book Prize Award.

According to Liow, TARC was now able to offer degree programmes after being upgraded to a university college on May 2013 and would focus more on technical and vocational studies.

"As part of the MCA education plan, we hope to further enhcance and help a variety of professionals by producing more graduates in technical and vocational fields," he said.

- Bernama