Datuk ChM Dr Soon Ting Kueh
President
Institut Kimia Malaysia

 

New Year Message from the President

 

Bidding Farewell to 2024 & Welcoming 2025

As 2024 is coming to a close, we are getting ready for 2025. Looking back, we believe that 2024 has been a good year for us. We have managed to achieve the following:

  • Forum on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programme for Registered Chemists under Chemists Act 1975 (Act 158) &
  • IKM 57th Annual General Meeting on 30th March 2024.
  • The International Congress on Pure & Applied Chemistry Mongolia (ICPAC Mongolia) 2024 from 28th August – 1st September 2024 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • K3M 2024 with a record number of 40,301 participants from 957 schools taking part, was held on 17th October 2024 in all schools taking part.
  • Malam Kimia 2024 – 53rd IKM Gala Dinner and Presentation of IKM Awards was held in One World Hotel, Petaling Jaya on Friday, 6th December 2024. Close to 700 guests attended this IKM gala dinner
  • CHEMISTS RULES 2024 was finally approved and signed by the Honourable Minister of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and published in the government gazette on the 5th day of June 2024.
  • PROGRAMME STANDARD FOR CHEMISTRY – Another major development was the adoption of our Chemistry Programme Standard for Malaysian universities by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA). This Standard is approved by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) for accreditation of undergraduate chemistry programmes in Malaysian universities with MQA.

For 2025, we are focusing on the following three activities:

  1. IUPAC 2025
  2. Accreditation of Malaysian Undergraduate Chemistry Programmes with MQA
  3. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programme for Registered Chemists

 

  1. IUPAC 2025

Our main focus in 2025 will be IUPAC 2025 which comprises the 53rd IUPAC General Assembly (53GA) and 50th World Chemistry Congress (50WCC). IUPAC 2025 will be held in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) from 12 – 19th July 2025 with the theme of “Chemistry for Sustainable Future”.  We have started some serious work on IUPAC 2025 including the establishment of the National Organising Committee (NOC), the International Advisory Board (IAB) and the Scientific Committee (SC). We have also invited 12 eminent scientists to be our Plenary Speakers. Please refer to the website, iupac2025.org for more information.

The 53GA programmes are being finalised now and it will be from 12 – 16th July 2025 at KLCC.

For 50WCC, we have three Clusters of scientific sessions comprising I) Pure & Applied Chemistry, II) Chemistry & SDGs and III) Thematic Sessions. These Sessions are managed by IUPAC Divisions & Committees, IKM and other Collaborating Organisations. We are now inviting Keynotes, Invited Lectures and voluntary submissions.

The website, iupac2025.org is now open, inviting registration and submission of abstracts. It is starting slowly and hopefully; it will gather momentum after the start of 2025. We are working hard to ensure the success of IUPAC 2025.

IUPAC 2025 is your event and I look forward to seeing all of you at IUPAC 2025.

Another major area that we will be starting in 2025 is the following Accreditation of Chemistry Programmes in Malaysian universities.

  1. Accreditation of Malaysian Undergraduate Chemistry Programmes with MQA

After the adoption of IKM’s Chemistry Programme Standard for Malaysian universities by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), we are ready for the accreditation of undergraduate chemistry programmes in Malaysia. By mid-2025, MQA will inform the universities that their current chemistry programmes have lapsed and they have to apply for provisional accreditation with MQA with their new chemistry programmes that are in compliance with IKM Chemistry Programme Standard. IKM will process and evaluate these applications for provisional accreditation by MQA. After a two years period of provisional accreditation, IKM will then start the accreditation process for full accreditation by MQA.

  1. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme for Registered Chemists

Another major area that we shall begin in 2025 is the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme for registered chemists under the Chemists Act 1975. The following four sub-committees have been established to look into the implementation of CPD programme in 2027:

  • Sub-Committee 1: Legality
  • Sub-Committee 2: Publicity, Awareness, and Education
  • Sub-Committee 3: Administration, Finance, and Implementation
  • Sub-Committee 4: CPD Programme Development

We shall start planning for the CPD programmes in 2025 and by 2026, we shall be ready to put it to a trial run before full implementation in 2027.

So, we shall have the above three major programmes on for 2025. The success of these major activities is crucial to the further development of IKM. We need members’ support for all these to make IKM a truly well established professional scientific organisation well recognised by all.

Thank you and God blessed.

Datuk ChM Dr Soon Ting Kueh
President, Institut Kimia Malaysia
Date: 1st January 2025