Welcoming Remarks by Director General of FDTCP

TOWN PLANNING EXPERT TALK 2013 EXPLORING THE `FUTURE CITIES’ (22 MAY 2013, WEDNESDAY, 9.30 AM AT BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR)

WELCOMING REMARKS BY Y. BHG. DATO’ MOHD. FADZIL BIN HAJI MOHD. KHIR DIRECTOR GENERAL, FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING, PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah hiwabarakatuh, a very good morning, salam sejahtera and Salam 1Malaysia, Madam Emcee; Miss Junko Inokuma, Deputy Director General, Regional Revitalization Bureau, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan; Dr. Kazuhiro Kawase, Counsellor, Head of Economic Section, Embassy of Japan; Dr. Dahlia Rosly, Deputy Director General (Development), Federal Department of Town and Country Planning, Peninsular Malaysia; Tuan Haji Mohd. Anuar bin Maidin, President, Malaysian Town Planning Officers Association; Distinguished speakers from Japan and United Kingdom; Dato’-Dato’, Gentlemen.

1.

Datin-Datin,

Distinguished

Guests,

Ladies

and

First and foremost, on behalf of the Federal Department of Town

and Country Planning, Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Malaysia, I would like to welcome all of you to this Town

Planning Expert Talk 2013, themed Exploring the `Future Cities’, organised

by

Research

and

Development

Division,

Federal

Department of Town and Country Planning and Malaysian Town Planning Officers Association.

2.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to delegation

from Japan, led by Miss Junko Inokuma from Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan and the representatives from the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Malaysia – Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) for making your time available to join us today. I particularly take note of the presence of the representative of the European Union Delegation to Malaysia, representative from the Embassy of France, YBhg. Dato’ Halimi Abdul Manaf, Director General of Local Government Department and YBhg. Datin Paduka Alinah Ahmad, Mayor of Petaling Jaya City Council.

I welcome all of you and anticipate your

contributions to this seminar.

3.

I am very grateful to all speakers for their willingness to

accommodate their time to share with us today their knowledge, ideas and experiences in their respective fields towards the pursuit of achieving future cities and sustainable development. I believed that there are a lot of examples of future cities’ development initiatives and programs in Japan and other countries that Malaysia can learn from and benchmark against in the planning and developing the structure, form and operations of existing and future cities in Malaysia.

2

4.

To all distinguished representatives from government and non

government, higher learning and research institutions, I thank you all for being present here today. Your presence shows the commitment and support of the sustainable, green and `future cities’ development programs which is the ultimate goals not only for developed countries but also developing countries, like Malaysia.

THEME : EXPLORING THE `FUTURE CITIES’ Dato’-Dato’, Datin-Datin, Ladies and Gentlemen, 5.

'Exploring the `Future Cities’ was selected as theme for this

year Town Planning Expect Talk Program, aimed to explore and share fundamentals, ideas and efforts relating to the concept and initiatives of `future cities’, in particular as was realised and implemented in several cities by the Government of Japan.

6.

Selection of this theme is in line with the commitment of the

Federal Department of Town and Country Planning, under the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, which making `Future Cities’ as the main agenda to be explored and promoted. It is not the intention of the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning to create or add new terms (Future Cities) in urban planning and development process in Malaysian, but we seriously hope that the concept and initiatives of 'future cities’ as implemented in other countries can be implemented in our cities and settlement areas.

7.

For your information, to realize the implementation of the concept

of `future cities’ in Malaysia, beginning this year,

the Federal

Department of Town and Country Planning has reviewed concepts,

3

initiatives, methodologies and best practices of `future cities’ implemented in Europe, Middle-East, South Korea and particularly in Japan to be adapted in Malaysian context. We hope at the end of this year, we can come out with the concept, initiatives and implementation framework for `Malaysia Future Cities’.

THE NEED FOR IMPLEMENTING `FUTURE CITIES’ Ladies and Gentlemen, 8.

Future Cities, in my understanding, is a concept, approach,

trend and development alternative in developing cities. Academically, there is no specific definition and interpretation for the approach and concept of `future cities’. It is an idea developed and implemented to overcome the phenomena of climate change, global warming and local environmental issues, natural disaster, increase in energy and water usage, rapid urban development that caused urban sprawl, rising of urban population and also the increase of aging society.

9.

According to a study by United Nation, the world’s urban area will

be more than double in size by year 2030, presenting an opportunity to build greener and healthier cities. With an estimated 50% of people living in urban areas, the impact of rapid urbanisation is driving global policy makers to give priority to the environmental issues.

10.

As the key drivers for sustainable development continues

globally, countries in Asia are stepping up their efforts in promoting environmental sustainability. Many governments are aggressively pushing ahead with key initiatives to plan new sustainable cities and

4

infrastructure as urbanisation continues and environmental issues remain at the forefront of policy.

11.

Therefore, we need the formulation and implementation of `future

cities’ initiatives to ensure development of cities applies the concepts of `green growth’, `green development’, low carbon society and consider the needs of aging society in urban activities. The ultimate aim of `future cities’ is to achieve holistic sustainable development by focusing on approaches and methods in realising

`economic

productivity’ , `environmental sustainability’ and `social inclusiveness’.

MALAYSIAN INITIATIVES TOWARDS GREEN GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Ladies and Gentlemen,

12.

Malaysia is aiming to achieve green growth and sustainable

urban development in its cities. Since early 2000s, many efforts were carried out by various authorities at the federal, state and local levels, such as introducing the concept of healthy city, liveable city, harmonious city and many other concepts in the planning and developing of towns and cities in the country.

13.

At the National level, the effort to achieve green and sustainable

development was emphasized in Five-Year Malaysia Plan (started in Eight Malaysia Plan) and through the formulation of policies and plans, such as National Urbanisation Policy (2006), National Physical Plan (2005/2010),

National Green Technology Policy (2009),

National

Climate Change Policy (2009), National Solid Waste Management

5

Policy and Road Map to Reduce Green House Effect. Even, the Malaysian Government has promised to the world to reduce carbon emission up to 40% in terms of emission intensity of GDP by 2020 compared with its 2005 level.

14.

Efforts to achieve green and sustainable development also

implemented at the state, agency and organization levels through various programs, such as Local Agenda 21, formulation of Low Carbon Cities : Framework and Assessment System’ by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KETTHA), Green Building Index’ and `Green Building Index For Township’ by GBI Sdn. Bhd., Low Carbon Green City by Putrajaya Corporation, Low Carbon Society Blueprint for Iskandar Malaysia’ by IRDA,

implementation of

3R

program by the National Solid Waste Management Department, implementation of rainwater harvesting, 1Malaysia Green 1Malaysia Clean Campaign and My Beautiful Neighbourhood’ and my Beautiful Malaysia programs.

15.

Similar initiatives were introduced and implemented

by the

Federal Department of Town and Country Planning as a leading agency in urban planning activities in Malaysia by formulating policies, plans, guidelines and assessment system for urban sustainability, namely:

(i)

Malaysian Urban Indicators Network (MURNInet – since 2002) and

Malaysia Urban-Rural National Indicator

Network for Sustainable Development (MURNInets – 2012). MURNInet and MURNInets were aimed to assess

6

and improve the sustainability level of towns in Malaysia through the performance of a set of sustainable development

indicators

identified.

It

is

recognised

nationally as one of the most important programs ever undertaken in the country to measure urban sustainability;

(ii)

Planning Guidelines for Green Neighbourhood;

(iii)

Implementation of Five Green Neighbourhood Initiatives;

(iv)

Planning Guidelines for Livable Compact City;

(v)

Planning Guidelines for `Ubiquitous City’; and

(vi)

Planning Guidelines for the Elderly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 16.

The endeavour to promote, implement and enforce the green and

sustainable development goal in Malaysia has now moved to a new phase, in line with the international efforts to tackle the issues and phenomena of global warming, climate change and natural disaster. It has also moved to anticipate the ideas of low-carbon city, renewable energy and various `green’ initiatives, such as green technology, green transportation, green building, green township and other `green’ brands and taglines.

From the perspective of urban planning, I

believed that `green growth’ is one of the ways to achieve sustainable cities and at the same time to attenuate the problems of global warming, climate change and the occurrence of natural disaster.

17.

Cities and urban areas in Malaysia will be at the frontline driving

towards green growth as well as making cities sustainable. This agenda is in line with the aspiration of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

In his speech on 24 July 2009, the Honourable Dato’ Seri Mohd Najib 7

Tun Abdul Razak has pointed out that “we Malaysian can live in a clean, healthy and high quality environment, where cities, townships and communities are built on the fundamentals of green technology�.

CONCLUSION Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 18.

I really hoped that this program will become a forum for

discussion, sharing knowledge and promoting the ideas, concepts and initiatives of future cities and sustainable development, as well as a good platform for enhancing network and friendships among Japanese, European

and Malaysians. Given the paramount

importance of our future cities, it is my sincere wish that this seminar does not prove to be a one-time exercise. Similar forums and more cooperation towards the goal of creating better future cities should be encouraged to take place.

19.

Before I end this speech, I would once again like to express my

utmost gratitude and appreciation to Miss Junko Inokuma from Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan and other delegations from Japan for your presence. I would like to thank the speakers, distinguished guests and participants for your participation, support and contribution to this meaningful program. I would also like to commend the effort of Expert Talk organizing committee (Research and Development Division for successfully organizing this seminar in cooperation with the Malaysian Town Planning Officers Association).

8

20.

I end my speech with wassalammualaikum warahmatullah

hiwabarakatuh.

Drafted by:

Research and Development Division, Federal Department of Town and Country Planning Peninsular Malaysia.

Email : alias@townplan.gov.my

9