MALACCA: The Cabinet has given its approval for a new policy to make urban development more efficient and systematic and to resolve the current lack of co-ordination among Federal, state and local governments. 

“Problems start when each do their own thing,” Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said when announcing the National Urbanisation Policy yesterday. 

He cited highways that were not properly planned and which cut into residential areas. 

There were also buildings built by government agencies that had no access road, he told reporters after opening the 20th Malaysia Town and Country Planning meeting at the a hotel here yesterday. 

GOOD TURNOUT: Ong (centre) and Town and Country Planning Department director-general Datuk Mohd Fadzil Mohd Khir (second from right) waving at the cameras after the meeting in Malacca.

Ong said some government agencies were still unaware that all projects must refer first to the National Physical Planning Council (MPFN), as provided for under the Town and Country Planning Act.  

Previously, only projects by the private sector were required to go through the development control process, he said. 

“Under the Act, every agency comes under the council. All structure plans and local plans must be consulted with, and approved by, the council before a project can start,” he added. 

He urged all government agencies to work together, adding that such cooperation could help clear backlogs as well as avoid bureaucracy.  

Ong said city development which was not well planned, due to poor coordination among government agencies, only created problems, including traffic congestion and pollution. 

Ong said the new policy was in his ministry’s agenda under the 9th Malaysian Plan to improve urban development. 

He said Malacca was the first state to present its gazetted physical structure plan to the MPFN. 

Gazetted plans could be reviewed every five years following public feedback, he added.