STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER
DR B.SIBSUSISO DLAMINI
AT THE 2ND GRADUATION CEREMONY AT THE LIMKOKWING UNIVERSITY OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY
AT MAVUSO TRADE AND EXHIBITION CENTRE, MANZINI
FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2015
Honourable Ministers
Emeritus Dr Lim Kok Wing, Founder and President of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Vice-Presidents of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Campus Director and Staff of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Students of the University
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is an honour and a pleasure to be with you all today at this, the second graduation ceremony in the life of the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in the Kingdom of Swaziland. I was proud to attend the first graduation ceremony last year and I am no less thrilled to be here today.
The expansion of the tertiary sector is a high priority objective in any education system. Taking one’s knowledge that important step further, which often includes specialisation within the broader field of subjects studied at secondary education level, is hugely valuable in this day and age. Many subjects are entirely relevant to the sustainable development of societies and their economies but, when one hears the words creative and technology, one is alerted to the increasingly significant role they play in the modern world.
Technology can perhaps be best understood as the application of science to the activities of a society of the present day. Its impact extends to every branch of life – from information to communication to industry and to medicine, to name but a few. From the Internet to smartphones, to driverless cars, to DNA analysis and to 3D printing, technology and the advances in it dominate society today. Living gets faster, and usually better. We can knock out most diseases with newly developed medication, communicate within a minute to someone on the other side of the world, and we can predict storms and earthquakes with a remarkable degree of accuracy. Our ancestors of barely a century ago would be speechless if they were to see it all.
Whether the improvements made, and time saved, by technology give rise to worthy substitutions in an individual’s lifestyle does vary enormously. Educationalists and sociologists are no doubt researching intensively into the psychological and sociological impact of modern technology on human development. But whether we use progress in technology to improve our personal lives or whether it crowds out the simpler, and often more active and healthy, human pursuits of yesteryear will vary enormously among individual people. But the fact is – technology will continue to progress and the closer we Swazis are to the vanguard of the movement, the better. We have so much to gain from it.
His Majesty’s Government is acutely aware of the need to be super-active, even a leader, in creative technology as the Kingdom goes forward in this technologically exciting century. The Royal Science and Technology Park is our flagship, so to speak, and to also have a university dedicated to the same field of technological progress is a wonderful asset.
For this impressive academic dimension to the field of technology, we have to thank Dr Lim Kok Wing for his quite outstanding generosity in establishing our own Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. There are around 2,600 students on the campus and this requires 103 staff for its operations, all of whom are paid for by Dr Lim Kok Wing. That is an extraordinary level of beneficence and, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, I wish to express our deepest gratitude for this gesture.
As we are reminded on a daily basis, though not always to our advantage, we share the world with approximately seven billion people. It is, therefore, seriously impressive to learn that the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology has campuses in no fewer than 13 countries. A total of around 30,000 students from nearly every country of the world are studying in those colleges as we speak. That must make it the biggest private university on the planet. Furthermore, Dr Lim Kok Wing has funded a scholarship scheme in which students are able to study in Malaysia itself. We currently have 13 students in that scheme and we are deeply grateful for it.
We are additionally grateful to have Dr Lim Kok Wing with us today, together with the Vice-Presidents of the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology world-wide. I am sure, Dr Lim Kok Wing that you and your colleagues are delighted to see the fruits of your beneficence and the proud, smiling faces of the graduands receiving their graduation certificates today. Around 700 happy countenances is a marvellous sight indeed!
On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I congratulate most warmly all the graduands and wish them well as they take their newly acquired creative technological skills out into the economy.
Thank you.