On 6th December 2021, Women in Rail Malaysia in partnership with YTL Construction and UniKL organized a FB Live panel discussion entitled Post COVID-19: The Future of Malaysia’s Rail Industry.
In this one-hour interactive session, we discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the rail industry at both the national and global scale, challenges faced by industry players and the future of the rail industry within Malaysia.
This session featured 3 amazing speakers namely Dato Sri’ Dato Sri Azmi Abdul Aziz (CEO of YTL Rail), Hidayah Hassan (Women in Rail Malaysia) and Assoc Prof Ir. Dr. Azman Senin (Head of Campus UniKL).
Dato Sri’ Azmi Abdul Aziz who has more than 30 years’ experience in various rail-related projects globally shared some interesting data on the number of existing rail projects in Malaysia including the challenges faced by local industry players. He then shared some fascinating facts about the
future of Malaysia’s rail space including upcoming projects i.e the High-Speed Rail (HSR) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Circle Line.
Our very own member, Hidayah Hassan, shared on Women in Rail Malaysia’s engagements to encourage more young children to consider a career in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) space. For the record, Women in Rail Malaysia had spoken to more than 5,000 students across Malaysia through our on-ground activations including knowledge sharing session, leadership talks and university-industry collaboration events. Hidayah also highlighted on how women can break barriers and strive for high-level success in male dominated fields.
The UniKL’s Head of Campus, Assoc Prof Ir. Dr. Azman Senin shared interesting statistics on the rapid growth of students’ enrollment into UniKL’s rail courses for the last 5 years and initiatives that the university has taken to ensure that the number continues to grow. He then emphasized the importance of university-industry collaborations to ensure that the younger generations are always excited about rail-related courses.
Silvia is most definitely living proof of how women can thrive in the rail and engineering field. Being the Construction Director for a national rail project is no mean feat and Women in Rail Malaysia was so grateful to have been able to learn and grow from Silvia’s massive experience.
