KUCHING, April 11 (Bernama) -- Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Education Ministry's My Innovation Hub (MyInnoHub) to work in research on sago and road construction on peat soil.

The university's deputy vice-chancellor (Student Affairs and Alumni), Prof Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman said the MoU signed today would see both parties further working on projects involving sago from upstream plantations, harvesting and processing to the downstream production of glucose, sound absorbers and other items.

"UNIMAS has identified sago as a local product in Sarawak that can be a food source in the future. It is a robust plant, growing without problems and is suitable for the equatorial climate and soil in Sarawak.

"Currently, we have more than 30 researchers working on sago alone. At UNIMAS, we have established the Centre for Sago Research (CoSAR) to be the regional point of reference for sago research," he said at the signing of the MoU between UNIMAS and MyInnoHub at the university, here, today.

Prof Mohd Fadzil signed the MOU on behalf UNIMAS while MyInnoHub was represented by it chief executive officer, Vincent Wong Wai Sang.

Under the MoU, MyInnoHub will also assist UNIMAS in developing research on constructing road on peat soil, using the new Unimas innovation, Foam-ERP road system.

"It is UNIMAS' effort to support the state government in building good infrastructure on peat soil as Sarawak has 13 per cent of peat soil, which is about 19 per cent of the total peat land in Malaysia and it is very difficult to construct roads on peat soil.

"For the Pan Borneo Highway project alone, the majority of the road construction on peat soil is in the southern region," he said.

-- BERNAMA