MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

New Year Message from the President

 

Welcoming 2024

2023 has been a busy and fruitful year for IKM. We have been able to carry out many events and activities to achieve our objectives, targets and rewards.

2024 – What are installed for us?

As I am writing now, we have just completed the Forum on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programme for Registered Chemists under Chemists Act 1975 (Act 158) and the IKM 57th Annual General Meeting (57AGM).

For the Forum, we have learned many things from our architect, engineering and medical colleagues on their CPD programmes and how they manage the programmes. We shall study all these and come up with proposals for our own CPD programmes for Registered Chemists. Members will be given the chance to give their inputs and I want to assure all members that this is something that all members are able to fulfil easily.

As for the 57AGM, I first want to congratulate all the five Council members elected at this AGM and I believe they will serve for the betterment of all chemists in Malaysia. The principal office-bearers of the new IKM Council 2024/2025 were elected at a Council Meeting after the AGM. I believe that we are all ready to serve our members.

For 2024, we have the following major events:

• International Congress on Pure & Applied Chemistry (ICPAC) Mongolia 2024 which will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 28th August – 1st September 2024.
• The annual Kuiz Kimia Kebangsaan Malaysia (K₃M) 2024 will be held in all schools taking part on 3rd October 2024.
• Our Malam Kimia & Presentation of IKM Awards 2024 will be held on 6th December 2024 at One World Hotel, Petaling Jaya.

In addition, IKM shall be taking part in the following international events:

• 4th Commonwealth Chemistry Annual General Meeting on 21st May 2024 online.
• 50th IUPAC World Polymer Congress (MACRO) 2024 in Warwick, United Kingdom from 1st – 4th July 2024.

In addition to the above, the IKM Professional Centre will be conducting 34 training programmes in 2024. The IKM LMIC Examinations 2024 will be held in September and IKM LMIC Refresher Course 2024 from 13th July to 18th August 2024.

This year, we are expecting the Amendment to Chemists’ Rules to be completed soon and the new Rules will be implemented upon signing by the Honourable Minister of MOSTI. Hopefully in April. The other matter is the Programme Standards for Chemistry in Malaysian universities. We have got approval from the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) and we are now working on the accreditation procedure.

But the most significant development in 2024 will be getting ourselves ready for IUPAC 2025. IUPAC 2025 comprises the 53rd IUPAC General Assembly (53GA) and 50th World Chemistry Congress (50WCC).  These two global chemistry events are being organised biennially all over the world and Malaysia is the first ASEAN country to host IUPAC 2025 in Kuala Lumpur in July 2025. It is expected to attract more than 3,000 delegates from all over the world.

We have started some initial work as early as January 2024 with the establishment of the National Organising Committee (NOC) and International Advisory Board (IAB). By end January 2024, we have appointed Conference Partners Sdn Bhd as the Professional Conference Organiser (PCO) and we are negotiating with Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) as the venue of IUPAC 2025. At this moment, we are coming out with a “SAVE THE DATES” initiative to be distributed worldwide through the electronic and social media. The website, iupac2025.org, is being developed and is expected to be up and running by end of May 2024. We are also looking into the scientific contents of 50WCC including inviting plenary and keynote lecturers. We are also actively involved in getting sponsors and the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) is a DIAMOND sponsor. There are so many things to do!

We need support of all Malaysians, including all IKM members, to make IUPAC 2025 a big success.

At this moment, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Muslim friends and colleagues “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri”.

Datuk ChM Dr Soon Ting Kueh
President, Institut Kimia Malaysia
Date: 31st March 2024