FIRST it expanded from Dhoby Ghaut to Queenstown. Now, one Singapore private school is really branching out, setting up shop in the Central Asian city of Tashkent.

The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) will open its first overseas campus in the capital of Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, around August this year.

MDIS is one of a growing number of private schools venturing abroad, said International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, a government agency which helps companies expand overseas.

At least 20 schools, to the agency's knowledge, have gone abroad. The list includes preschools in Bangladesh and Malaysia and tertiary-level institutions in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

They go mainly into countries around the region where Singapore's brand of education is well regarded, said IE Singapore's director of business services, Mrs Tan Li Lin.

But some, like MDIS, go farther. Its secretary-general, Mr R. Theyvendran, said of Uzbekistan: 'This country is untapped. It's new territory and many people have not heard of it.'

Until recently, MDIS officials were among that group. That changed when Uzbek government officials came courting last year. A team from the Central Asian republic, which became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was here to invite foreign educational institutions to set up a campus.

Within months, a deal was struck for an MDIS campus. It will be a joint venture with the quasi-governmental Uzbekistan Banking Association.

For a start, MDIS will run business, marketing and accounting diploma and degree courses at its Tashkent campus. Its lecturers will be flown there to teach students as well as local lecturers.

Uzbekistan's ambassador to Singapore, Mr Alisher Kurmanov, said his government has been inviting foreign educational institutions to set up campuses in the country to help more students upgrade their skills.

It is a young country, with more than 60 per cent of its 27 million people under 30 years old, he added.

MDIS was chosen for its expertise in business courses.

'We have a certain trust in Singapore's quality and Singapore education,' he said.

The school aims to attract 1,200 students in three years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 27, 2008.