KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur city must be better prepared to face future challenges and ensure no group is marginalised in line with the principle of the Malaysian Family, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) needed to be dynamic and productive in managing issues besides improving its delivery services.
He noted the lower-income (B40) group, for example, must be given due attention to ensure their basic needs are addressed.
Ismail Sabri said this in his speech when launching the 50th-anniversary celebration of Kuala Lumpur’s city status at the Perdana Botanical Gardens here last night.
The formation of a sustainable city for all must take into account the economic needs of a city and the real attraction of a city is its ability to create jobs, he said.
Ismail Sabri noted Kuala Lumpur, which was once a small and quiet tin mining town with nipah roof houses, was now bustling with skyscrapers and rapid housing development.
He said Kuala Lumpur is known for its great landmarks such as the Petronas Twin Towers which once made history as the tallest building in the world, while the Merdeka 118 is the second tallest tower in the world after Burj Khalifa.
The Prime Minister also announced the ‘Keluarga Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Well-Being Package’ (PKKMKL) aimed at improving the quality of life and faster online services.
He noted DBKL was currently in the process of turning Kuala Lumpur into a city with zero-poverty status.
“To enable city dwellers to have a more comfortable life, DBKL will build 5,000 council homes with a minimum area of 750sq ft to be rented out,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said DBKL will also repair 306 lifts at 31 people’s housing and public housing projects within two years.
“Besides these, to ensure the safety of city folks, security in Kuala Lumpur will be enhanced with closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras from the Kuala Lumpur Command and Control Center,” he said.
Ismail Sabri added DBKL will also provide pedestrian walkways, cycling paths and green networks as well as upgrade hawker stalls at older hawker centres and also licensed roadside stalls.
DBKL, he said, would approve business premises licence applications within 24 hours, and within three days for small-scale development construction permit applications.
In addition, he said a 10% rebate will be given throughout the year for payments involving all application fees as an incentive to encourage city folks to conduct business online.
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said he also fully supported Kuala Lumpur’s initiative to help Malaysia’s target of being a carbon-neutral country by 2050, adding for this to be realised, the nation’s capital must develop and progress alongside other major cities in the world.
Also present at the event were Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim and Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah. — Bernama