The most developed and promising direction of Ukrainian-Malaysian cooperation in humanitarian sphere today is education. One of the positive achievements of the Ukrainian-Malaysian bilateral relations is the fact that during the last 20 years the opinion has been formed in Malaysia about Ukraine as a country where it is possible to get the high-quality higher education.
At present the Ukrainian universities have prepared more than 2,000 highly skilled specialists from Malaysia.
It is a well-known fact in Malaysia that one can get a higher education in Ukraine in English at a very reasonable price, plus the specialists trained in Ukraine are traditionally of a high value abroad. As of 2005 in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ukraine, mainly in the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU), studied about 1,500 Malaysian students. At the same time, on 22 June 2005 the Government of Malaysia unilaterally approved the decision on withdrawal of accreditation of the CSMU that significantly narrowed the scope for cooperation in this area and led to a gradual reduction in the number of Malaysian students in Ukraine.
The activities of the Embassy has focused on the necessity to resolve the issue of recognition of Ukrainian medical university in Malaysia and cooperation with other universities in Ukraine. These issues, in particular, have been discussed during a series of meetings between the Ambassador of Ukraine and the Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia, who has expressed interest in the development of humanitarian cooperation with Ukraine.
Today, in order to give a new impetus to the development of relations between Ukraine and Malaysia in the field of education, the Embassy initiated the establishment of direct contacts between the leading universities, particularly among the oldest educational institutions of both countries - University of Malaya and Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University and Kyiv National Polytechnic University. The schemes of cooperation between the Malaysian «Lincoln Collage» and L’viv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk Medical Universities are also being established at the moment.
Every year the role of the tourism which is a promising segment of the Ukrainian-Malaysian bilateral relations in enhancing human contacts is increasing. More than 10,000 of the Ukrainian tourists visit annually Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Ukraine as an attractive tourist European country has also a lot to offer the Malaysian tourists - ski resorts, the Black Sea coast recreation facilities, eco-tourism and some unique resorts that for the second decade have been attracting local tourists. In order to enhance relations in the tourism sector Embassy today gives priority to establishing contacts between the leading travel agents of both countries. In this context, Ambassador of Ukraine held a meeting with the President and other authorities of Malaysian Association of Travel Agents.
In addition, the Ukrainian side is continuing negotiations on the Agreement on partial abolition of visa requirements for the citizens of Ukraine and Malaysia. It is expected that the mentioned agreement would significantly contribute to the further establishment of the business and people to people contacts between the two countries.