Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of the conference was officiated by the Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Ts. Dr. Azman Hassan. The ceremony was also attended by Mr. Timo Goosmann, Minister Counsellor, Head of Political Affairs, Press and Information, the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, UTM top management and government officers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

In his officiating remarks, Ts. Dr. Azman Hassan applaud congratulate UTM and its FOODI partners, both from Europe and Asean, for organising this event and the establishment of the MSc FOODI program. The transdisciplinary Master programme is a noble effort to ensure continuous improvement of food processing, technology and innovation. The ministry also foresee that this programme will produce global talents who are creative, resilient, and entrepreneurial and contribute to the sustainability of food industry.

The Closing Ceremony

The closing ceremony of the conference was officiated by the Secretary General, Ministry of Entrepreneurs and Cooperatives Development Malaysia, Dato’ Suriani Ahmad on the 9th November 2022.  The Ministry which acts as a hub centre for entrepreneurs, plays a major role in ensuring all government initiatives toward entrepreneurship are accomplished. The specific objective and vision are to assist the nation’s entrepreneurial development strategy by establishing an ecosystem that is inclusive, sustainable, and knowledge- and innovation-driven. For food entrepreneurship to be sustainable, it requires continuous improvement and innovation. Thus, she applaud the transdisciplinary programme like MSc Foodi which can help spur the creativity and innovation that will benefit the fields of food science, innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, all of which align with key themes in RMK-12 and advance sustainability and green growth.

The Plenary Session

The theme for Plenary Session 1 is on Creating Integrated Values for Global Food Sustainability and Food Security. The session was held after the opening ceremony, on the 7^th November 2022. The session was moderated by the FOODI Project Coordinator, Rosmini Omar. The panelist consist of Prof. Frank Monahan from University College Dublin, Ireland, Fatimah Mohamad Arsyad, a professor in Food Sustainability from Universiti Putra Malaysia and Mohd Khairul Mat Hassan, Chief Financial Officer from Farm Fresh Sdn Bhd.

The Plenary Session 2 was held on 9^th November 2022, after the closing ceremony. It was attended by all participants of the conference including students and academic, people from the industry and community. The theme of discussion for this plenary session is on The Future of Food and Agriculture: Setting the Pathways for Innovation. Prof. Anil Kumar from AIT and Prof. Dr. Ida Idayu from UTM, two eminent experts in food processing and innovation, have been invited to the session. They each presented the results of their most recent studies on agriculture and food. Ar. Kaniza Shafie, owner of Kebun Kota, a business founded in 2012 with a focus on agriculture innovation and the preservation of the water-energy nexus, was the industry speaker for this session. She passionately described how she founded Kebun Kota to assist the intersection of aquaponics and building an enduring circular economy for food production. The startup works with local residents, universities, government organisations, and foreign professionals.

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