Dr Sim: SDG crucial for urban, rural development

KUCHING (Oct 13): Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) play an important role in the development of urban and rural areas, said Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He said with urbanisation, resulting in concentrated growth in urban areas, it would eventually lead to changes in lifestyle and the environment.

“I am very happy that Datuk Seri Reezal Merican from the (federal) Ministry of Housing and Local Government launched the Liveable Cities Agenda by setting the Malaysia Liveability Index (iDAM) to be practised by local authorities in the country.

“As we move forward, this is the key way to measure what is liveable, and this is part of the SDG by 2030,” he said when officiating the Malaysia Urban Rural National Indicators Network for Sustainable Development (MURNInets) here today.

On MURNInets, Dr Sim, who is also Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister, said it will provide an enhanced intelligent platform to strategise the types of development in a particular area while being able to measure its effectiveness through the rakyat’s participation in surveys.

“It is a very comprehensive coverage on the economy, sustainable development, health, community, land use, efficient infrastructure, transport and so on,” he said, noting that government agencies can relearn and redesign the products and services they give, based on feedback.

He said, however, this cannot be achieved without the close inter-agency cooperations with when some data are owned by other agencies.

He thus called on local authorities to ensure that the data that are within the scope of their respective areas to make the necessary input.

“We need everyone’s cooperation. We have the interface already and now we need the cooperation of inter-agencies to do the work so we can have all this,” he said.

He said the use of MURNInets will ensure Sarawak is guided when it plans to improve the liveability of its local authority areas.

Also present were Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister permanent secretary Datu Antonio Kahti Galis, and Town and Country Planning Department director general Dr Alias Rameli.