Dato Fauzi Prof. Dr., Vice Chancellor, and Associate Professor/Lecturer Suhaimi Napis of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), which has a faculty-level agreement with Okayama University's Faculty of Agriculture, paid a courtesy call to President Kiyoshi Morita on October 1.

　Okayama University participated in a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project for five years from 1990 to give wide-ranging support and follow-up to the Department of Biotechnology in UPM. Contacts have been maintained through joint research, dispatch of our own faculty and acceptance of short-term students from UPM, and research by UPM faculty at Okayama University.

　Hoping to expand this cooperation still further, both universities are showing a willingness to shift the current faculty-level agreement into a university-level agreement.