Effective Implementation (2)

Effective implementation of urban regeneration programmes is always depended on the support of the stakeholders especially the land and building owners. It means nothing even though the authority can formulate a comprehensive master plan without the participation of them. As brown field development is always touching on the living community, it is also a difficult task to to meet entire community's aspiration and agenda, even sometime the objective of majority is not an easy venture. Thereby, engaging the land and building owners are critical and pre-requisite for any successful urban regeneration programme.

In Guangzhou, I was told instead of compulsory acquisition of land, the owners are allowed to look for their development partner first. Failure with, they can request the city government to auction their land for development. They will get 60% of the amount without the city government acting on their behalf for disposing the land. Third option is the owners can stay put and continue with their line of business, but of course to comply with all the city regulation. Nothing to stop them from continuing with their activities unless the law is broken.

I think it is a good move of encouraging urban regeneration without jeopardising the right and responsibilities of the land and building owners. They are given the chance to be consulted and to part share the profit of the programme. It is truly another form of public participation in practice, I presume.

Metro in Guangzhou

I was in Guangzhou City of China attending a fair and discussion with the city officers last week. One of the development impressed me the most is the well connected, accessible and affordable public transportation and pedestrian network. I was told the network was in place prior to the Asian Games in Year 2010. I visited the city 5 years ago and I must admitted the speed of urban transformation equally surprised me to say the least. I cannot recall any cities in the World except China that have gone this pace of rapid development.

The public transportation system is very efficient and connectivity is covering almost every corner of the city. It is reachable from one end to the other end within set time frame. On top of that, the pricing structure make travelling affordable. I paid RMB 12 to travel from down town to the Baiyun Airport. I cannot recall of city-airport transfer with similar pricing. Apart from that, the whole metro lines are underground, not even at grade or elevated. With the efficient public transportation, it will stimulate tourism and travelling. My collegues without the knowledge of Chinese of language are able to travel to tourist destinations without any difficulty. Of course, their only inconvenience is how to bargain for the best price.

Effective Implementation

It was reported that rebate scheme for energy efficiency electrical appliances offered by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water does not meet the anticipated result. After 2 months of implementation, many qualified purchasers of new appliances do not care of applying for the rebate. It was quoted as a complicated process and the restriction is too much to fulfill with. While the scheme is a good start to encourage low carbon and energy saving living, the process itself becomes a hindrance for achieving the target.

People always say for effective implementation of a programme, 3 factors are important, namely the content, context and process. While the content itself of going green is noble and by right should be welcome by all like-minded people in dollars saving and environmental friendly, it does not mean that everyone will aim for it. Right context is also important such as the right target group, timing and circumstances. For example, affordability is one issue. If i can purchase an air-con with life span of 5 years but with more than 50% cheaper than the energy efficiency product, then for those concern about paying higher capital expenditure at the initial stage, the cost factor will be prioritised. Similarly, right process is also critical. We should facilitate the process by making application is an easy task and not adding eextra burden to the decision process of purchasing. If you request me to visit the Ministry in Putrajaya for the form and to submit again, then it might be not cost efficient for me to do so.

I wish the assessment rebate scheme for environmental friendly house owners offered by Petaling Jaya City Council will be an easy process.

Off Your Car Engine

Do you know that with your car engine on while waiting will cost you RM 0.16 per minute? Do you know that you are polluting the environment unneccessary for generating 0.208 kg CO2 only with 10 minutes of your car engine on? Do you know that 1 liter of petrol or diesel used will generate 2.5 kg CO2? All these are the answers provided for during the launch of the Off Your Engine While Waiting Campaign in the office compound of MBPJ recently.

While we switch on the car engine while waiting for our love one is a common gesture, we have not realised that this very small action is polluting the environment. All bosses are expecting their drivers to switch on the engine and air con waiting for them before they got into their car.

The campaign is commendable as it will be the first time a local authority has initiated such initiative to raise public awareness and also the good cause for carbon emission reduction.

Development

People said development is unstoppable. You are either join in the crowd or be marginalised. Having said this, many of us only consider physical and economy development are the so called development and progress. We are looking at the physical transformation of a place or materialistic as development. We are seldom take into consideration social development as progress development. For example, in the 60s, people knew each others and neighbourhood security is of non issue. Nowadays, high fencing and tight security are there to protect the neighbourhood for the reason of better safety. While we have achieved economically well, we are backward when it comes to social development. So, are we talking about the true meaning of development here. We are at the Catch 22 situation here as society is facing the vicious cycle of development. People rich with friendly and social interaction in the old days are more happier than now that we hardly talk to each others or even know our immediate neighbours. Are we paying the price for so called development?

If the answer is yes, then why should we so eagerly pursuing the development as what we perceived now? I think many are in the loss. People are working hard to feed their family in which they will have to fore go the precise time together with the family. When they have accumulated enough wealth, the relationship between husband and wife or parent and children are not as cordial as we should think of, hence the starting of other social problems such as youth rebellion, drug etc. If we have realised it from the beginning, why should we not prioritising the family and social development first instead of the wealth creation?

In this era of competitiveness and capitalism, no one will dare to risk their chance of not doing well and harder for more wealth. Hence, not many can afford to place family first and economic development later. The game of pursuing development will go on until and unless the nature call for us to go slower or stop. We will only learn the lesson when the time comes, I presume.

Convince

Are you convincing enough? How to convince a person? Obviously it is not that easy to sell your idea and hence getting agreement from others. Convincing cannot be done depending on the appearance of the presenter or his skillful and powerful talk alone. It might work for the short term but as many say you cannot fool a person for long time, you simply cannot rely on these for all the time. A powerful speaker might lead people into believing him, but it will not last unless what he conveyed turn into reality.

To me, convincing means you are able to present the fact, even though how hard it is. Convincing means you are able to turn theories into reality. Convincing means you are able to present the true scene. It is seeing and believing.

Land vs Planning

Land matter and planning design is inseparable. No planning can be done without the land. With the availability of land, it is even more challenging for planning because every single piece of land is unique and different in form, size and character. Land matter and planning design become more complicated when National Land Code, 1965 and Town and Country Planning Act, 1976 are crossed reference. It is logical to confirm on the ultimate use of a piece of land prior to allowing any changes to the land form. If this argument is accepted, then application for planning permission should come first and followed by the land application. However, many have the understanding that since land application will ultimately be referred to and decided by the State Authority, then the final decision is vested with the State Authority rather than the local planning authority. Local Authority by virtue as local planning authority is subjected to decisions and policies made by the State Authority does not spare from this perception of subjecting the final decision on developmental projects to the discretion of the State Authority.

How to make both the processes flowing as efficiently as possible is a big task ahead. Business process re engineering on development either at the planning level or land stage should be looked at thoroughly and comprehensively.