The Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia (or the AOTS Alumni Society of Malaysia) was officially set up in 1985 by a group of Malaysians who had undergone either the management or technical training programmes with the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS). It was also during that time that Malaysia, having to survive a recession in 1984, started to embark on its quest towards being a major manufacturing centre in the region. This was spearheaded especially by the set-up of the Malaysian National Car Project (PROTON). Malaysia welcomed foreign direct investments to open manufacturing plants here by offering low production cost. As a result of this, FDI jumped in the ensuing years and there was a tremendous need for skilled labour and technically competent management. AOTS Japan has helped to fill this gap by providing scholarships for management and technical training in Japan. With an initial membership of 100, the society today boasts a membership of approximately 500, more than 90% of whom have opted to becoming life members. Many of our members have also ventured into business, having learnt to the basics of entrepreneurship. Today they are into the fields of manufacturing, trading, contracting, consulting and training.

The Society has its own administrative centre at Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Besides providing training programmes to enhance the region’s human resource skills, in its continuous pursuit to becoming the premier regional centre for educational excellence, it has now graduated to become a provider of management and entrepreneurial programmes for people from other developing nations. This would not only assist Malaysia’s aspirations of being an industrialised nation by year 2020, it would also contribute to Malaysia’s other aspirations to be a major player in world’s business and educational arena.

The Society operates transparently and is guided by the basic principles spelt out in PAAM’s own constitution.