Governor of Melaka TYT Tun Datuk Seri Utama Mohd Khalil bin Yaakob receives Honorary Doctorate
Tuan Yang Terutama Tun Datuk Seri Utama Mohd Khalil bin Yaakob, the Governor of Melaka, has been awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Leadership in a special ceremony on 29 September.
The Honorary Doctorate was awarded to recognise Tun Khalil’s outstanding leadership in nation building. During his 12-year tenure as the Head of the state of Melaka, he has made a number of ground-breaking accomplishments that had propelled the state forward. These notably include the state being listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 2008. This achievement has since served as a great boost to Melaka’s tourism industry.
With an ever growing number of major key projects developed under his leadership, the state of Melaka has become a vibrant, multicultural global hub. Some of the key developments that the state can be proud of include the Melaka coastal reclamation project and the upgrading of the Melaka airport. These projects are part of a series of infrastructural improvements that have been planned as part of the vision to make Melaka a major attraction for foreign investment.
Tun Khalil continuously sets plan to enable Melaka to stand out as a unique state with its own exclusive development branding that is different from the other states.
Tun Khalil has had a varied but luminous career in politics. He has the honour of serving under every Prime Minister from the first PM Tunku Abdul Rahman to the current PM Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib. In the Cabinet, he was the Deputy Minister of Education (1982 – 1984), Minister in the PM’s Department (1984 – 1986), and Minister of Information (1999 – 2004). He also held the post of Pahang’s Menteri Besar from 1986 – 1999. He was appointed as Melaka’s sixth Governor in 2004.
In awarding the Honorary Doctorate to Tun Khalil, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr. Lim Kok Wing, Founder and President of Limkokwing University, said “Tun Khalil bin Yaakob is someone I admire and respect as a statesmen of extraordinary leadership. He has somehow managed to balance his passion for the arts with the science of politics in the five decades that he has served Malaysia.”
