KOTA KINABALU: Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Edward Yong Oui Fah called on property developers, architects, designers, suppliers and builders to work together and commit to achieving the goal of sustainability through education, discipline and proper organizational planning.
Yong, when launching IPEX 2014 at Sabah Trade Centre yesterday, said architects could be pioneers in bringing about greater awareness of sustainability in the building industry and at the same time could influence all strata of the construction industry to adopt new approaches and practices towards green building and urban planning.
The property exhibition, which is organized by Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) Sabah Chapter, will be held until Sunday.
“The government fully supports the effort by PAM Sabah Chapter to play an active role towards bringing greater awareness among the players of the building industry. IPEX 2014 is one such example.
“We share many similar objectives with PAM Sabah Chapter to encourage more sustainable development throughout Sabah, in particular here in our city Kota Kinabalu. We hope through our collaboration and concrete efforts, we can disseminate our ideas and vision to the general public for a better future for our city,” he said.
Yong added that IPEX had established itself firmly within the building fraternity and the local residents as the premier building trade show in Sabah.
“It has become an annual event that is much anticipated and eagerly awaited by all sectors of allied and related industries.”
Touching on the exhibition’s theme, ‘Liveable Cities, Sustainable Cities,’ Yong said the earth is in a state of needing great attention as the people in this era are living in challenging times.
“Natural disasters are being unleashed unexpectedly, causing much distress. The rise in global temperature, coupled with natural disasters, give rise to many challenges and people across the globe must undertake and overcome them with boldness.
“At the same time, we are witnessing a mass migration of rural population to the urban centres. It is estimated that 50 per cent of the seven billion world population today live in urban areas, and this figure will rise 70 per cent of the nine billion world population by 2050.
“These large communities provide both challenges and opportunities for environmentally-conscious developers and architects. How to make cities liveable and sustainable is becoming a pressing issue that must be addressed today,” he added.
Yong, in his launching speech, said liveable cities were measured by the quality of living in an urban area.
“The most important criteria are safety, education, hygiene, healthcare, culture, environment, recreation, political-economic stability and public transportation.”
Meanwhile, sustainable cities are measured by how much the people reduce the consumption of energy, water and food, and also how much the people reduce the waste output of heat, air and water pollution.
“A sustainable city should be able to feed itself with minimal reliance on the surrounding countryside, and power itself with renewable sources of energy.
“The crux of this is to create the smallest possible footprint, and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, reuse materials, recycle or convert waste to energy, and thus the city’s overall contribution to climate change will be minimal,” said Yong.
Also present at the opening ceremony yesterday was the chairman of PAM Sabah Chapter, Victor Wong.