The Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) was first initiated at the 1st Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (CHOGRM) for Asia Pacific Region held in Sydney in February 1978. It was officially launched on 7 September 1980 at the 2nd CHOGRM in New Delhi, India, to signify Malaysia’s commitment to South-South Cooperation, in particular, Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC).

The MTCP was formulated based on the belief that the development of a country depends on the quality of its human resources. The programme forms part of the commitment of the Government of Malaysia towards the promotion of technical cooperation among developing countries, strengthening regional and sub-regional cooperation, as well as nurturing collective self-reliance among developing countries.

The MTCP emphasizes the aspect of human capital development through the provision of technical training in various areas, which are essential for a country’s development. The MTCP offers technical training and capacity building courses in vast areas of development such as in the field of Agriculture; Banking and Finance; Construction Industry; Diplomacy; Disaster Management; Economy; Education; Environment; Health Sciences; Industrial Technical Training; Peace Building; Public Management and Administration; Science, Technology and ICT including IR4.0. Since its inception in 1980, more than 35,000 participants from 144 MTCP recipient countries have benefited from the various programmes offered under the MTCP.

As the national focal point, the MTCP Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia oversees the overall planning and operation of all activities and programmes under the MTCP, including coordination and collaboration with local and international development partners.

Since its establishment in the 1980s, INTAN was the pioneer for MTCP and to date, remains to be amongst the active public training institutes to participate in the MTCP.