Town planners told to support ‘green tech’

Parties involved in town planning and housing industry are urged to support the government’s aspiration in its move towards “green technology”.

Speaking at the Town & Regional Planning Department 33rd anniversary dinner at Sutera Harbour here on Sunday, Minister of Local Government & Housing Datuk Haji Hajiji Haji Noor said that the government is creating an environment conducive for the development of green technology in the State.

“The involvement of others is needed to support the government’s efforts of developing a strong economy based on green technology.

“Green technology is expected to open up new business opportunities in the property industry and will encourage strong property investments,” he said adding that the support will positively affect the State’s economic development in reaching the balance between development and environment.

Hajiji expressed his hopes for every member of the department and ministry to adopt the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) by transforming its services’ efficiencies for the better.

During the event, the minister also presented awards to long-serving and excellent service staff of the department who included the department’s former director Datuk Thasius Joeman.

Thasius founded the department (then known as the Department of Town & Country Planning) and became its first director some 33 years ago.

It later became part of the Ministry of Local Government & Housing and serves as the secretariat for the central board. Before that the department was part of the Land & Survey Department.

Thasius was succeeded by Dr Adrian Chong some years ago before Mursidi took over.

Also present at the dinner were Assistant Ministers Datuk Zakaria Edris and Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam, ministry’s permanent secretary Datuk Matius Sator and department director Mursidi Sapie.

Meanwhile according to Bernama, Hajiji was reportedly urging town planners to be sensitive and far-sighted in coming up with more strategic and holistic planning to create towns that can provide high-quality living for its residents.

He said visionary town planning would produce towns that would be responsive to future challenges in keeping with the changing times.

“To improve the quality of service delivery, we need to resolve the current planning issues which are the main challenge to our transformation programme. This means the issues of slow plan approvals, land use, planning standard and so on must be tackled to make these more efficient,” he said.

Hajiji said the use of new technology like digital mapping was a wise move in dealing with land planning and development issues for the good of all.

Source: New Sabah Times