KUALA LUMPUR: The newly launched Malaysia 100YC (Year Cities) programme will encourage local universities to reimagine Malaysian future cities and share their ideas, solutions and concepts to address the challenges of future urban living.
The Malaysia 100YC program, launched today by Urbanice Malaysia, a centre of excellence under the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (KPKT), also includes attracting ideas, best practices and case studies from professional bodies and industry leaders in the areas of technology, architecture and town planning.
The program was officiated by UN Habitat executive director Dato’ Maimunah Mohd Sharif and witnessed by KPKT deputy secretary general Dr. Mary Wong Lai Lin.
“The Malaysia 100YC programme is in line with Malaysia’s aspiration to advocate, promote and implement projects in support of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
“We are also keen to increase the momentum generated amongst Malaysians from our successful hosting of the World Urban Forum 9 earlier this year,” Urbanice Malaysia chief executive officer Norliza Hashim said.
The Malaysia 100YC programme, inspired and adapted from the Malaysia Biennial 100YC programme, is a collaboration between Urbanice Malaysia, Think City and the Nextdor Property Communications Sdn Bhd.
Six topics have been identified under the Malaysia 100YC programme as key focus areas covering innovative technologies, green open spaces, urban mobility, affordable living, community governance and smart infrastructure.
The Malaysia 100YC programme will run till February 2019 with workshops and special studio sessions taking place throughout before culminating in an exhibition.
Think City managing director Hamdan Abdul Majeed said technology is moving at a frantic pace, changing the way people interact with each other and the spaces around them.
“One of our main aims from this collaborative programme is to guide our city planners and managers to better meet the current and future demands of our cities and its citizens”, he said.
City councils were also urged to participate in the Malaysia 100YC programme and share their own challenges and aspirations so that participants will be able to provide greater local context to their solutions and ideas.
Founder of the Malaysia Biennial 100YC programme Imran Clyde said crowdsourcing ideas and solutions for future cities is an innovative way to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration.
"By visualising ideal future cities, we are also able to create a foundation towards realising those futures and this can be done by creating or promoting the right incentives or policies,” he said.
The event also hosted an Urban Café Session entitled 'Urbanisation and Community Development’ which saw local experts deliberate on how rising urbanisation is placing a strain on city and environmental resources as well as what urban communities can do to address these scenarios.
The NUA is a framework that guides efforts around urbanisation and development such as local fiscal systems, urban planning and basic services and infrastructure to ensure sustainable development.
The SDGs focus on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
“UN projections indicate that Malaysia will have an urbanisation rate of 85% by 2040, by which time Malaysia’s population is expected to hit 41.5 million people.
"We must be prepared and start planning now,” Norliza said.