KUANTAN: The Kuantan City Council (MBK) is on its was to be recognised as a "developing smart city", while five other local authorities in Pahang have applied for the "smart city early adopter" status this year.
State Local Government, Housing, Environment and Green Technology Committee chairman Datuk Mohammad Fakhruddin Mohd Ariff said MBK successfully had cleared the initial stage by achieving the smart city early adopter (Level 1) rating last year.
"MBK has submitted its nomination for the next stage, which is the developing smart city (Level 2) this year while the Temerloh, Pekan and Bentong municipal councils along with the Lipis and Jerantut district councils are nominated for Level 1.
"The National Smart City Council chaired by the Housing and Local Government Minister (Nga Kor Ming) will decide on the nomination status on Oct 28. The local authorities are given ratings in accordance with the Smart City Indicator," he told reporters after opening the state-level World Town Planning Day 2024 here today.
Malaysia's smart city rating programme consists of four stages namely smart city early adopter, developing smart city, leading smart city(Level 3) and visionary smart city(Level 4) depending on the criteria the local authorities meet.
Meanwhile, Fakhruddin said the Pahang government has introduced and adopted various measures to help accelerate the recognition of smart cities here including actively promoting cashless transactions, parking payments through the Pahang Go application and providing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
"To move towards a fully-fledged smart city, there are seven main components including smart government, smart people, smart living and smart environment which the state government is striving to meet. However, it might require some time but we have to start making the necessary plans early," he said.
Fakhruddin said Pahang's Town and Country Planning Department's (PlanMalaysia) will prepare the state's Smart City Blueprint 2040 next year which will focus on the issues, policies, community feedback and initiatives to meet the needs of the people here.
"The blueprint will be completed within six months next year. The blueprint will be developed by gathering the input from all the relevant agencies in Pahang," he said.
Also present was Pahang's Plan Malaysia director Nik Noraisu Nik Ibrahim.