KUCHING: Malaysia is facing various challenges with 26 million citizens living in cities and urban areas; including 1.65 million residing in the cities of Sarawak.
Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming said with such a large urban population, there would be challenges in providing for the needs of urban societies; such as waste management, traffic problems and air pollution, affordable homes, ensuring access to public transportation and telecommunication, among others.
“We are also challenged by the change in demographic profile, where Malaysia will become an ageing society by 2045, in which 14 per cent of Malaysians will be 65 years and above.
“This brings new challenges in health care services and the need for a conducive and accessible physical environment. Thus our cities and urban environment must be age and gender friendly and this must be addressed in our local development plans and local council’s strategic plans, to meet the needs of the elderly and vulnerable community,” he said.
He was officiating at the Malaysia Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Cities Network and World Habitat Day at Hikmah Exchange here Monday.
Nga said sustainable urbanisation is the only way forward to ensure the long-term viability of cities as well as enhancing the well-being of both cities and its inhabitants; which would address equitable economic development, social progress and environmental responsibility to create a resilient and liveable city.
According to Nga, the Sustainable Development Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities requires its adopters to ensure safe, accessible and inclusive city spaces.
Therefore, he said, it is necessary to provide good quality public spaces for communities to get together, strengthen social cohesion and allow cities to highlight their local cultural identity.
“We must not compromise these spaces and we need them even more today, where the role of urban public spaces in our health, well-being and social life has become more significant.
“Our cities must be people-friendly and barrier-free and if our nation or cities are to be truly sustainable, they must be truly equitable,” he said.
Nga said his ministry has established the National Smart City Council while Malaysian Smart City Rating has been developed by PLANMalaysia – as part of the implementation of the Malaysian Smart City Framework 2019- 2025.
By 2025, the target is for 61 local councils to be recognised as early adopters city, and this year, recognition of early adopters city will be announced in the National Planning Conference on Nov 9.
He said the programme conducted by URBANICE Malaysia encourages cities to develop their 2030 SDG Roadmap and empower local stakeholders to undertake programmes and projects aligned to the global and national goals.
He said this was important as Malaysian cities need to set their own pathways and targets to address local challenges.
And at the same time, to determine local actions to ensure that future developments will take place in a more responsible, integrated and sustainable manner.
“We must strengthen our bottom-up feedback system to ensure integration and co-operation on policy matters and better coordination of action plans to reduce mismatch between real needs and plans.
“I was informed that out of 155 local councils, 45 cities have already embarked on their SDG Cities Roadmap to achieve the 17 SDG Goals and 169 targets,” he said.
Meanwhile, six out of these cities have submitted their Voluntary Local Review report of progress to the United Nations and 24 out of the 45 cities are from Sarawak.
