Abang Jo’s visions on housing and tourism

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Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg

 

DATUK Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg who heads two ministries – Housing and Tourism — is known for his many “think out of the box” ideas and the determination to make them stick.

The Satok assemblyman’s name, in fact, is Abang Zohari but he doesn’t mind how it has been misspelt all these years, preferring to deal with more important issues such as those close to the heart of the people, especially housing and public transport, which he foresees will be come under tremendous pressure with the burgeoning rural-urban migration.

His major task now is getting the cities and towns ready — in terms of housing and public transport – in order to accommodate the rural immigrants so that these places will continue to be liveable with the quality of life not only being maintained but further improved as well despite the swift population growth.

This son of Sarawak’s first governor (Tun Abang Openg) who had just tabled the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Bill 2013 and the Housing Development Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 at the on-going State Assembly sitting, made time to talk to thesundaypost on the latest status of his projects and his visions on housing for the people and tourism for the state.

 

Q: You are entrusted with looking after the Housing and Tourism Ministries. How do you manage?

A: I only have to provide the ideas, the direction and the vision. The implementation is done by the civil servants, so I don’t have to go into details. I just make sure they follow the plans. But I think I have been able to manage because I am lucky to have a good team with me.

There are four capable Assistant Ministers who work very well with me.There are Datuk Talib Zulpilip (chairman of Sarawak Economic Development Corporation) and Datuk Gramong Juna helping me in tourism, not forgetting Datuk Rashid Khan (CEO of Sarawak Tourism Board) and Ik Pahon (permanent secretary to Tourism Ministry). Then there is Dato Sri Muhd Michael Leo Toyad, who chairs the Borneo Convention Bureau.

For housing, I have Datuk Francis Harden who is now going to the longhouses to explain the mechanisms of housing loans. Datuk Abdul Karim Hamzah is also helping me in the Housing Ministry.

It’s a very good team to whom I can delegate. That’s why you see them answering questions in the State Assembly. I’m not a superman. I delegate duties to my team and I empower them to carry out the duties. We brainstorm every now and then to fine-tune our plans.

 

Q: From our observation, traffic in Kuching has become quite chaotic. There seems to be a lack of confidence in our public transport. Your comments?

A: Basically, Kuching traffic is not that chaotic. The only chaotic time is during peak hours. Why is it so? Because public transport is not there. People have no choice but to use their own transport. The question is not whether people have confidence in our public transport but whether our public transport is there. Honestly, there is no public transport.

We understand if we have good public transport, then people from outside Kuching — for example, Serian — will not have to drive down to Kuching city. They can take a bus and the volume of cars coming into Kuching will be less — like what’s happening in London. This is what we are looking into now. In the meantime, we try to do something on public transport. It takes time to build a proper transport system and we have decided to start with the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system.

 

Q: What stage is the BRT in now?

A: As it is costly to set up the whole system, the state government has decided to work with the federal government. The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) will be coming in to help. The first stage has been identifying BRT for development as our public transport system. To develop BRT, traffic flow has to be studied. We don’t want to build a route that may affect private properties and make the whole project even more costly. We have identified the trunk route and will branch into other routes later.

For a start, the route we are of will run from 7th Mile (Sentosa Area) to Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi and Jalan Abang Haji Taha as well as Main Bazaar. As the cost involved is quite high, how fast the project is full functional will depend on how SPAD finances it.

Our second option is river transport. We have been promoting it since the last two years. The response has been very positive. Apart from tourists, you can see a lot more local people using river transport now. And I have the feeling that once the jetty infrastructure is in place, even more locals will use river as an alternative transport, particularly when they travel from east to west.

My general concept is this — from north to south, connectivity will be provided by the BRT system while from east to west, there will be river transport.

 

Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg

Q: River transport is a very interesting concept. What is your vision for it?

A: Our river transport is modelled after Brisbane’s. I can see Kuching becoming like Brisbane, eventually. We already have a few bridges and the river system. We can maximise the use of the rivers. For example, Unimas (University Sarawak Malaysia) can be linked to Kuching through Sungei Kuap. All it needs is a jetty.

The success of river transport will depend on how the local people respond to it.

Our plan is not only turning river transport into an alternative transport for the local people but also making it a tourism product. I must say river transport is slowly coming up. I think once we have got all the jetties ready, people will be willing to commit more to using river transport.

As for the traditional tambang (small passenger boats), they may, in the future, not only be used for crossing the river but also as another form of river transport. What we need to do is making adjustments to the engines.

Besides tambang, another new feature we will see on our rivers are battery-operated vessels. The operators only have to plug into a power point to charge up and it takes only 45 minutes. A fully charged battery can run for eight hours. As they are not running on petrol, the operators may even be able to offer cheaper fares. And what’s more, these battery-operated vessbels are environment-friendly. Two of them have arrived from Australia, costing about RM100,000 each. We will experiment with them and see how they perform.

 

Q: What are the efforts being made to cater for the increasing rural-urban migration in terms of housing? 

A: Since SPAD has taken over BRT and our public river transport is ongoing, the focus in now on housing. Housing has to be provided not only for the low income group but also the middle income group — those earning between RM3,000 to RM5,000 a month. There are many graduates now working in the city and they are within the range of middle income. They must also be given access to housing — of RM300,000 and below. Whatever is above RM300,000 is beyond them.

But how can we provide relatively cheaper housing in urban areas? The answer is high rise buildings with many units. We’ll soon be providing some public housing through the building of affordable high rise apartments. They are cheaper compared to landed properties in the city. This can only be done after the passing of the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Bill 2013 and the Housing Development Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013, which we just did.

 

Q: What do you think has been the cause of rocketing house prices?

A: Speculation has been one of the factors. We need to curb speculation and monitor the developers. That’s why we tabled the two Bills at this Assembly sitting. The three components that determine the price of housing are land, utilities and construction costs. Our analysis is that land cost takes up 40 per cent, utilities, 20 per cent, and construction cost, including labour and material, the rest. Land price in the urban areas can be so exorbitantly high.

In certain urban areas, one acre may cost RM4 million. If one acre is already RM4 million, how much do you think a house built on that piece of land will cost? So to provide comparatively cheaper housing for the people, we will build affordable high rise apartments to enable the low and medium income groups to own houses in urban areas.

 

Q: How much has speculation contributed to soaring house prices in terms of percentage?

A: I can’t express it in numerical value. But there has been a lot of speculation on land because the demand is there. And speculation on land has given rise to the hike in property price. For example, in year one, a piece of land may be worth a certain amount but construction only starts six years later. For the private sector, when they sell the houses on that piece of land, they do so based on the price of year six. But for us, our affordable housing will be sold at a price based on year one.

High rise buildings will be cheaper than landed properties. This is the option we can consider for a small patch of urban land. It’s affordable for people who migrate to or work in urban areas. They can then own an apartment unit with all the facilities.

Things have changed. Young people nowadays are less likely to want to stay in houses like their grandparents. They are mobile and like travel during holidays. That’s their lifestyle. When they travel, their apartments will be safer than landed properties. That’s why we have to tighten our laws to make sure these high rise buildings are well maintained. We don’t compromise on living standards while we provide affordable housing.

 

Q: What about squatter problems? When can the state achieve zero squatter status?

A: The answer depends on what you mean by “squatters.” For those squatting on state land, we may be able to solve the problem by 2020. But if you were talking about people squatting on private land, then that’s a totally different topic.

For squatters on state land, the main concentration areas are in Miri and Bintulu.  In Kuching, there are about 1,000 squatter families. In Sibu, the problem is also not so serious — about 1,000 of them. The highest numbers are in Miri — about 4,000 squatter families, and Bintulu — about 3,000 mainly along Kidurong Road.

 

Q: How is the tourism blueprint for the state coming along?

A: We are doing an Interior Tourism Study and a Coastal Tourism Study simultaneously. Both will be completed by 2014. The Interior Tourism Study will include Bakun and Murum as destinations. Murum will be incorporated into the Bakun tourism plan as it is an extension of Bakun. For these two areas, the focus will be on lakeside tourism. The ongoing studies will include everything — the type of amphibian aircraft to be used, the operators of these aircraft as well as the fares charged.

The Coastal Tourism Blueprint involves tourism planning from Kuching to  Sematan. It includes developing Samariang into a resort city which will have fun features such as a theme park, a water park and a safari. The Samariang project is ongoing. Once, the project is done, we will expand coastal tourism into Sematan and Lundu. Here, mainly eco-based tourism will be offered. State tourism on a whole is very promising.

 

Q: Compared to last year, is there an increase of tourists coming to Sarawak?

A: Last year, there were 3.8 million tourists visiting Sarawak. This year by October, we have already reached 4 million. And with holiday time now, there is a possibility we may reach 4.2 million by the end of the year. Non-Malaysian tourists will make up 60 per cent of that figure while the rest are domestic tourists. In terms of tourism receipt, it was RM8.6 billion up till October. What we need to do now is to sustain and even further enhance it.

Now on a weekly basis, there is a cruise ship coming from Kota Kinabalu to Bintulu after stopping over in Brunei. For its inaugural trip, there were 1,500 passengers on board. Holiday makers — mostly mainland Chinese – arrived in Kota Kinabalu by air first before embarking on the cruise. Their stop in Bintulu was five hours. They visited some longhouses, shopped, sampled local food and bought some souvenirs. Then they went back to Kota Kinabalu.

This is a new product for Sarawak. Such a trip will be on every week until April next year. Unfortunately, the cruise can’t enter Kuching due to shallow waters.  However, we are now thinking of doing something about it – like building a wharf for the ship to berth while in Kuching. No details yet. We will only disclose them details when we finalise them.

 

Q: This is Visit Sarawak Year. What are the programmes for visitors — both local and foreign?

A: I have just launched the media campaign and we have also engaged with a radio station to promote our tourism packages. At the same time, we have created our website — Sarawak Adventure — where you can click and buy a travel package direct. The package will include all arrangements such as destination, accommodation and transport. The fare offered by our website is reasonable — sometimes, it can even be very cheap.

Online commercial transaction is fast and convenient but some operators refuse to use it and prefer the old way. I would advise them to try and reach out to their customers through the Internet, especially now that there are many travellers from the younger generation. When young travellers make plans, they don’t go to travel agencies — they go online to buy their package which is cheaper. We must try to give them what they want.