Study on 'Youth City' to start next year: Rahman

KOTA KINABALU: Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said a study on the concept of developing a 'Youth City' will begin next year. According to him, an allocation has been provided to conduct the study, inspired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, to identify the location and size of the city, as well as facilities.

"The concept is still in its early stages. We need some time to make sure this idea can be realised," he said to reporters during a Sabah FM radio interview, here, Saturday.

Other ministries involved in the study include the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Ministry of Rural and Regional Development.

Rahman said the idea behind the city is building a studio apartment or a house, effective transportation system and creative industries.

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He said the idea will be developed to suit the youths of today as 50 per cent of Malaysians comprised people aged 40 and below and that the city will be established in Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula.

According to Rahman, the strategic position would be in the suburbs to enable them to develop their creative ideas to make it more productive for the country, as well as provide new opportunities for the youths to start their career in the city to adapt to a new life.

Meanwhile, on the budget allocation for 2015 for Sabah, Rahman said of the total development budget of RM2.015 billion given to his ministry, 16.43 per cent or about RM331 million will be allocated to Sabah which represents the highest in the country.

Second highest after Sabah is Johor at 9.3 per cent (RM188 million) and Federal Territory at 9.2 per cent (RM185 million).

He said the cost of land was higher in the Federal Territory which made it expensive and required more allocations, but in terms of number of projects, he felt Sabah had more compared to other states.

For local government, RM44 million will be put aside for small projects, National Housing Department involved in the peoples housing programme (PPR) and others, will be allocated RM267 million for the State and for the National Landscaping Department, a sum of RM6 million.

"The Prime Minister has instructed me to give special attention to the State and Sarawak.

So if anyone says that the Federal Government does not take into account the welfare of the State that is a baseless accusation."

On the issue of abandoned housing projects, Rahman said such cases do exist but the numbers were small.

"From the overall standpoint of housing development in the country I feel that it is less than three per cent. But the problem with these abandoned homes issue is that the people are normally the victims, so it becomes a big and sensitive emotional issue.

"The issue is also being highlighted by the media. So if we have 500 people who are affected by the issue, it is enough to give an emotional aspect of the issue even though as a whole it represents only a very small percentage.

"The abandoned homes issue in Malaysia is actually under control - not more than three per cent at any given time.

"But because it involves the rakyat who are affected by the irresponsible action of some developers and it is an emotive issue, therefore it looks like a big issue but statistically it is quite small.

"As for me as the Housing Minister to recognise a housing project as abandoned so that the Government can step in to assist, it must go through several processes.

"Among these are an agreement by all parties such as the buyers, banks and developers. These three stakeholders must all be in agreement.

"If for example the buyers agree but the banks do not agree (i.e. seek to use the courts to try solve the problem) then the abandoned project would be difficult to be revived.

"In order for the process of reviving the abandoned project to proceed all parties need to 'sacrifice' something.

"The Federal Government also has to come in and use federal funds to assist. So all must agree but to get that agreement is not an easy matter as one or more parties may still decide turn to the courts instead."

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He added that there may also be further factors which would also complicate government efforts to rehabilitate abandoned housing projects.

"Other factors such as the long passage of time can further complicate matters. For instance, the developer might have also already become bankrupt and the company closed down or the buyers have passed away or cannot be traced. So it is not that we can't declare a housing project as being abandoned but there needs to be a proper process before it is carried out."

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