Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi today announced that Promoting Intelligence, Nurturing Talent and Advocating Responsibility (“PINTAR”), the school adoption programme involving Government-Linked Companies (“GLCs”), is expanding into the Iskandar Development Region (“IDR”) in Johor. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister after co-chairing a board meeting and advisory panel meeting of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (“IRDA”) at Putrajaya.

According to the Prime Minister, 30 schools in the region will be adopted with the latest expansion of the programme that was undertaken by GLCs under their Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) initiatives.

“The programme in IDR is expected to assist an estimated 12,000 underprivileged children in primary and secondary schools within the region and the State of Johor,” said the Prime Minister.

PINTAR began in Penang in December 2006 with a total of 45 schools adopted. With the launching of Northern Corridor Economic Region (“NCER”) at the end of July 2007, an addition of 12 schools from the states of Perlis, Kedah and Perak were adopted.

Presently a total of 24 GLCs and their subsidiaries are participating in this programme that has to-date benefited more than 22,000 students.

PINTAR is expected to be expanded in conjunction with the opening of the economic regions or corridor developments in the country. There is a plan to extend it to a total of 350 schools by 2010. In line with this expansion, the private sector partnerships for PINTAR will be extended to involve more companies operating in Malaysia.

The PINTAR programme is one of the initiatives that stems from the GLC Transformation (“GLCT”) Programme. It redefines school adoption programmes in line with the Government’s call under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (“9MP”) and 2006 Budget on public-private partnerships for sustainable development. The Putrajaya Committee on GLC High Performance (“PCG”), the committee that supervises the GLCT Programme, is hoping that PINTAR can be replicated to other corporations to support the Government’s call on Human Capital Development.

The core component of the programme constitutes Motivation and Teambuilding programmes; Educational Support and Skills Building; Capacity and Capability Building; and Reducing Vulnerabilities by addressing social issues in schools. These programmes are carried out in partnership with civil society and non-governmental organisations (“NGOs”) working closely with the community and the school administration.

PINTAR was launched in Penang on 17th of December 2006, by Second Minister of Finance, YB Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop and supported by both Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education.