SINGAPORE, June 5 — Malaysia, as chair of Asean in 2025, would like to deepen its collaboration with other member states to ensure cities in the region are future fit, said Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming.
Nga said this is important due to the recent and continuing heatwave, and extreme climate events.
“In the case of Singapore, we are working with the Housing Development Board (HDB) to deliver the Program Residensi Rakyat (PRR) programme.
“I am sure we can work with other countries in the region and globally to green the housing and construction sector,” he told the closing plenary session at the World Cities Summit (WCS) here on Tuesday.
Nga said Malaysia will continue to invest and innovate in three fundamental areas — housing, planning, and urban health to deliver the Madani Aspiration in national development.
He said the PRR was proposed earlier this year as a new generation of public housing that is adequate, affordable and well designed to overcome the housing challenge, especially those facing young Malaysians.
“PRR not only (aims to) deliver affordable and adequate housing but ensures they are well integrated, sustainable and liveable, with quality commercial viability, green spaces, a community centre and other features,” he said, noting that 77 per cent of Malaysians own their homes.
On planning, Nga said the government is pooling together talent, financing and services at the national, regional and local levels in the face of future, extreme climate events, including increased heat island effect, flash floods and drought that require greater integration in terms of multilevel governance.
He said the upcoming fifth National Physical Plan (NPP5) and the third National Urbanisation Policy (NUP3) will further strengthen public and community-level participations in planning and urban development projects.
“We believe in listening and working in partnership with the people we serve,” he said.
Nga said Malaysia has invested in upgrading basic services nationwide, including public toilets and public open spaces, and ensuring all Malaysians have access to clean and safe drinking water.
Nga was in Singapore from June 2 to 4 to attend the WCS. He also had bilateral meetings with Singapore’s Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu and National Development Minister Desmond Lee during the working trip. — Bernama
