Major facelift for KK next year, says Liew
Published on: Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: The State Capital here will get a huge facelift beginning next year following the focus by the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry on cleanliness, beautification and tourism.Its Minister Datuk Christina Liew (pic) said these three aspects are very important as there involve the image of the city.She said her ministry will take cleanliness, beautification and tourism very seriously and will look for ways to change the city in these three aspects.ADVERTISEMENT "We will tackle the cleanliness issue first by next year and I have to think how to teach these people to maintain cleanliness in their respective trading premises here or just penalise them."We want to make sure they do not throw rubbish indiscriminately and look after their cleanliness."For example, recently, I gave 200 rubbish bins to small vendors operating the new night market here so that they would not dirty their respective business areas," she said.Liew, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, said this to reporters after visiting three places for their brick walkways in Asia City and near Chung Hwa School next to Star City here.ADVERTISEMENT By next year, she said a cleanliness campaign will be carried out so as to further enhance public awareness."Love your city, make your city clean and make the tourists happy. We want to be able to achieve this and create interesting places for tourists to visit here. We also plan to create another similar Night Market here.
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"During the launching of the Night Market recently, the first 50 small-time vendors took up the lots on the first night, however, on the second night, there were about 30 to 35 stalls that were open."If the vendors continue to empty their lots in the two-day Night Market here, then we will replace them with those who are on waiting list whereby there are 50 waiting to be called," she said, adding that the Night Market would be further improved such as on the lighting and well as the security aspect which will be among the first steps to be taken.On the beautification aspect, Liew said all brick walkway in the city centre that are broken and sunken would be replaced with new ones so as to ease city dwellers, especially tourists to walk comfortably around the city."In view of many tourists coming in, I want to beautify Kota Kinabalu city and by using my ministry and Api-Api assemblywoman funds, those brick walkway that are not in good condition will be replaced with new ones."For instance, I have visited three places of having brick walkway in Asia City, including Jalan Singgahmata near Wisma Budaya whereby two of them have been completed while another is in the midst of being completed."I am very strict with the contractors…if they fail to do their jobs as expected and not completing the scope of works on time, then I would replace them with contractors who can do it," she said.Liew said the continuous effort of upgrading the city for two to three years starting next year is not only on the ground but also on roof of buildings such as the concrete canopies that need to be removed.She said she will have a meeting with the mayor to systematically remove the canopies and put something that would look nicer for the image of the city."Beautification of the city is very important but it has been put aside for a long, long time. So now, I would like to do it step by step."The concrete canopies include those in Kg. Air but we will have a meeting about this as there are canopies that are very old like 40 to 50 years old and need to be studied."If possible, I would like to have a meeting with the shop owners to discuss about replacing the old concrete canopies," she said.According to Liew, by Jan and Feb, landscaping of the city would start with the planting of trees and flowers at identified areas.She said the ministry is serious in improving Kota Kinabalu by giving a facelift in those three aspects which have not been done for a long time.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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However, she said these can be achieved provided that there is a full cooperation from the shop owners, the people and the State Government.Also present were Political Secretary to Liew, Vivien Lee, City Hall Landscape Director Robert Lipon, Api-Api Community Development Leader for Api-Api State constituency, Grace Lee and other officials. - Hayati Dzulkifli