He said this was essential if the university wants to remain relevant as an agent of transformation in society.
However, he cautioned that the university should not serve as the lead or manage special projects to the community as this is contrary to its primary focus.
"The main focus of a university is to generate knowledge, disseminate knowledge and interpret it in context so that it will be taken by relevant parties responsible for drawing up specific programs to help the community.
"The focus of a university should be clear. University is an agent based on the idea of transformation and we can assist policy makers and implementers to formulate what can be brought to the community through knowledge generated from research, "he said.
He said this while delivering a presentation at the Seminar for Business and Community Sustainability organized by the Graduate School of Business (GSB) USM at the university's Conference Hall.
In the same program, Tengku Tan Sri Dr. Mahaleel Tengku Ariff, Honorary Advisor Graduate School of Business and Dato 'Lee Ow Kim, Senior Consultant, Toray Malaysia Group of Companies presented their presentations that look at the industry sector and economic development on the basis of sustainable development.
A total of almost 100 participants comprising postgraduate students, researchers, lecturers and industry practitioners in the field of business attended the seminar.
The Vice-Chancellor also opened the new building and the Graduate School of Business launched a number of latest issues of the school's publications.
Commenting on the launch, Omar said with a building specifically for GSB, it is hoped that the school will be able to conduct academic and administrative activities in a more systematic way, optimising the use of existing facilities.
"GSB is committed to competitive RC in leading the agenda 'Top Business School "and succeeded in increasing the number of local journals that are indexed, the number of publications, number of principal investigators, and increase revenue generation,'' he said.
