MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: The New Straits Times (page 7)

To be called the National Spatial Plan (NSP), the map will identify all environmentally-sensitive areas in the country, such as water-catchment areas, wetlands and hill-slope areas unsuitable for development.

The map will also identify land specified for the planting of certain type of crops.

Two years in the making, the NSP is being prepared by the Town and Country Planning Department, Survey and Mapping Department, Land and Mines Department and the Agriculture Ministry.

"The map will enable us to specifically outline the areas in which development is forbidden and will tell the kinds of development each square inch of land is planned for," Town and Country Planning Department director-general Prof Datuk Zainuddin Muhammed told a Press conference at his office today.

Scheduled for completion "sometime in the middle of the Eighth Malaysia Plan", the NSP, added Zainuddin, "will be made public so that the people can immediately know when their local or State authorities approve development projects in areas forbidden".

Projects which encroach into environmentally-sensitive areas can be stopped much quicker with the NSP in place.

Zainuddin said the map would merge all of Malaysia's various policies like the Industrialisation Policy and the National Agriculture Policy into a single map.

"It translates all our policies into actual landscape of our country."

He said the use of high technology like satellite imaging and the Computerised Geographical and Land Information System in the creation of the NSP would make it a relatively speedy affair.

Asked on methods to make development project approvals more transparent and faster, Zainuddin said his department was undertaking efforts in this direction with the use of computers.

"We have begun to introduce a computerised submission of development plans, where the applications are submitted via diskette," he said, adding that the department's computers would immediately analyse and be able to accept or reject the application.

The system is now currently in place at the Town and Country Planning Departments in Terengganu and Pahang.

To increase public participation in the feedback gathering process of new development projects, his department is aggressively moving into using the Internet as a means to publicly display development plans and to gather input from the people affected.

Currently, development plans are put on display at certain locations for public viewing during specific period.

On the recent Cabinet directive for State Governments to refer to the Federal Government before approving projects in environmentally-sensitive areas, Zainuddin said his department had prepared 23 guidelines regarding the matter.

He said although awareness on the matter was high at the top-levels of administration, some of the local authorities were still unclear.

"We will go on a roadshow to inform the local authorities on the administration of these guidelines…"

Zainuddin earlier announced the upcoming World Town Planning Day 1999 celebrations. The month-long activities marking the day will kick off on Nov 8 at the Marriott Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

With its theme "Integrated Planning Towards the New Millennium", World Town Planning Day 1999 will be officiated by Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Ting Chew Peh.

Among the highlights of the celebrations are the Open Day for all Town and Country Planning Departments nationwide (Nov 9); and seminars on Integrated Planning (Nov 11-12) at the Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam, and on Digital Planning at Shangri-La Hotel Penang (Nov 17-18); and a series of exhibitions and public lectures at the City Hall Auditorium (Nov 22-23).