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2 Smart sustainable cities, ITU News, No. 4 2014
3 Strategy Paper 11: Climate Resilient Development, Eleventh Malaysia Plan
4 Strategy Paper 15 : Driving ICT in the Knowledge Economy, Eleventh Malaysia Plan
International organisations, such as United Nation (UN)
and World Health Organisation (WHO), have agreed
that realising the potential of cities and managing
its challenges will require the adoption of a multi-
sectorial, multi-stakeholder and multi-level approach
to sustainable urban development. Sustainable
development is a development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs, and it has been
a focus of international public policy since the Earth
Summit in 1992.
The key enabler for sustainable development is
information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Integration of ICTs into cities’ major processes can
make it smarter and more efficient. For example, ICTs
can reduce administration costs and improve access to
key areas such as healthcare, education and banking as
well as providing a platform for inclusion.
The
Chairman
of
the
International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) Focus Group on Smart
Sustainable Cities, Silvia Guzman, emphasised this
point when she stated that “Amidst the challenges
posed by rapid urbanisation, decision-makers are facing
the need to rethink and redefine the way in which
infrastructure is built, services are offered, citizens
are engaged, and systems linked, with the aim of
transforming cities into more sustainable and robust
living environments. ICT-enabled innovation is at the
core of that transformation”
2
.
This article explored the relationship between
urbanisation, sustainability and ICT. We analysed what
are the smart, sustainable development plan in Malaysia,
what are the challenges faced by our urban areas, why
we need a global initiative to drive continuous growth
in cities and how ICTs along with digital inclusion can
become the mechanisms for sustainability. Finally,
we elaborated on Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commission (MCMC) efforts in supporting
smart, sustainable development.
SMART SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT IN ELEVENTH
MALAYSIA PLAN
Malaysia through its Eleventh Malaysia Plan has set
in motion initiatives and actions to achieve smart,
sustainable development. Speaking at the United Nation
General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2016,
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi, stated “Our current five-year development
plan, the Eleventh Malaysia Plan covering the period
of 2016 - 2020, was formulated with people at the
centre of all development efforts and with the theme,
‘anchoring growth on people’. The Plan embraces three
main principles - achieving high income, inclusiveness,
and sustainability. In many aspects, the Plan mirrors
the multi-dimensional nature of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).”
The plan for sustainability was detailed out in the
Strategy Paper 11
3
which comes under Strategic Thrust
IV: Pursuing Green Growth for Sustainability and
Resilience. It was stated that the plan will focus on
strengthening the nation’s resilience against climate
change impact and natural disasters while at the same
time ensuring that economic growth is decoupled from
high resource use and environmental degradation.
Furthermore, Malaysia has always been a proponent
of utilising ICT to achieve sustainable development.
Our effort was recognised by the ITU when the Prime
Minister, Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak,
on behalf of the Malaysian government received the
‘ICT in Sustainable Development Awards 2015’ on 27
September 2015. In his acceptance speech the Prime
Minister highlighted the importance of digital inclusion
in the people-centric Eleventh Malaysia Plan. He further
added, “We believe that our nation will prosper through
innovation and ICT to create a smart digital nation”.
The government’s ICT development efforts were to
ensure underserved communities will ultimately have
equal opportunities in a developed Malaysia. This was
outlined in Strategy Paper 15
4
under Strategic Thrust
V: Strengthening Infrastructure to Support Economic
Expansion. This paper focuses on ICT as an ‘imperative
enabler for a knowledge economy, especially in the areas
of industry, infrastructure, human capital and digital
inclusion. These enablers will increase productivity
through innovation, thereby enhancing competitiveness
and wealth creation’.
URBAN CHALLENGES IN
MALAYSIA
The strategies that were laid out in the Eleventh
Malaysia Plan are intended, among others, to
combat the challenges of urbanisation including the
growing number of urban residents living in informal
settlements, upsurge in international migration and
climate change.
One of the persistent issues plaguing city managers
is the widespread growth of slums or informal urban
settlements, particularly in the developing world.
According to UN-Habitat, slum is a contiguous
settlement that lacks one or more of the following five
conditions: access to clean water, access to improved
sanitation, sufficient living area that is not overcrowded,
durable housing and secure tenure.
The UN-Habitat reported that slums are the
products of failed policies, poor governance, corruption,
inappropriate regulation, dysfunctional land markets,
unresponsive financial systems, and a lack of political
will. Locally, those living in these settlements were
5