Malaysia to assist Madinah become new Islamic civilisation centre

The Deputy Prime Minister said for the purpose, Malaysia would be sending more professionals and academicians to share their experience as well as to study at the Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE).

"We do not want to be left behind in contributing and studying so that Madinah and Makkah (in future) will become the new Islamic civilisation centres," he told Malaysian journalists here Saturday.

Earlier, Ahmad Zahid was given a briefing on Madinah as the Knowledge Economic City by the project development vice-president Saeed Ahmed Albially and MILE executive director Dr Mohamed Moustafa Mahmoud.

MILE is among the components of Madinah's future plan which is progressing rapidly over a 2.2 million sq mile site and the project is part of the 2030 Vision of Saudi Arabia.

Commenting further, the Deputy Prime Minister said Madinah as a new Islamic Civilisation Centre would benefit more than 1.2 billion Muslims throughout the world.

"Verbally, we agreed to send professionals and academicians to study and share their expertise at MILE," he said.

Earlier, Ahmad Zahid had said that Malaysia through the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) and several local universities had cooperated with MILE before.

He said cooperation with the institute (MILE) through the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) was also in line with the efforts of the government to transform its economy based on the model of a people-oriented economy.

On Friday night, Ahmad Zahid and his wife Datin Seri Hamidah Khamis, as well as the Malaysian delegation visited Prophet Muhammad's Tomb at Nabawi Mosque.