Malaysia’s cities should have character, culturally vibrant, says Anwar

The Star

The country's cities and urban centres should avoid becoming "concrete jungles", said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when launching the Asean-China Ministerial Roundtable on Construction and Housing 2024 on Wednesday (July 3).  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/mrxca3bt   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to deliver his officiating speech.

00:09Challenges of maintaining a competitive edge in the construction and housing industries

00:17encompass these various complex sectors. We need new buildings, we need to ensure that it is

00:30technologically profound, digital requirements, and now with the AI, which must be modern.

00:39We require skilled labour, we require compliance or regulatory compliance.

00:47We understand we have to anticipate the fluctuations in market demand,

00:54but I must emphasize the cultural vibrancy. Our architects are trained mainly in the West,

01:07or even here, but not a Western sort of a construct.

01:13And I am pleased to note that many of our architects, including the young ones,

01:18are more familiar and committed to ensure that what we show is not just any other city,

01:32is not just a concrete jungle, from the green jungle, Greenland, to the concrete jungle.

01:38It is all the same throughout the world. It has to have character. It has to be

01:47culturally vibrant. And in the context of Malaysia, there is an indigenous culture,

01:53there is Malay, or Chinese, or Indian, which is part and parcel of a community.

02:00And if you look beyond to Sabah and Sarawak, you see this fantastic, vibrant cultural mix,

02:09from the Dayaks, to the Kadazans, to the Muruts, etc. And it will be shameful

02:17if we do not take those features into consideration in either planning, or crafting, or building.

02:26So it is important for developers and architects, planners, policy makers, to ensure that

02:34it is culturally vibrant, it is modern and technologically sound, but environmentally

02:41friendly, and it takes into consideration the requirements of all sectors, so that you do not

02:50have the repeat of a tale of two cities. One sector for the very rich, one sector for the poor and

03:00the downtrodden. It must be a new tale of one city that is inclusive,

03:14designed to foster innovation, promote sustainability,

03:20and ensure that the industry remains competitive on a global stage.

03:30Thank you.

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