Tax devt promotion via publicprivate partnership lauded

KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Youth welcomed the announcement of the promotion of tax development through public-private partnership by newly appointed City Hall Mayor Datuk Nordin Siman.

Its Youth movement’s spokesperson Shen Fei believes that it is acceptable to increase taxes through public-private partnerships, and that Kota Kinabalu’s better prospects are what the people have been looking forward to.

He, however, pointed out that since the new mayor announced a public-private partnership plan to increase taxes, then it should be clearly clarified on the areas covered by the joint venture plan, especially for local companies.

In response to the new mayor’s mention of opening up more new plans to attract more local and foreign investors, Shen Fei said the move should be fairly distributed to local and foreign investors, or that certain areas should be positioned only to local companies’ bid, as a result, can drive the development of local corporate companies.

“The Kota Kinabalu City Hall must classify this issue and clearly state which areas are owned by local companies and which are for foreign investors to bid,” he said in a statement.

In this regard, Shen Fei appealed to local youths to take this opportunity to actively respond to the mayor’s call to effectively promote the city’s economy and attract investment from both tourists and foreign businessmen.

In terms of the green and smart cities, Shen Fei said he hoped that the authorities can truly implement a comprehensive work blueprint, instead of being limited to staying in promoting kitchen waste treatment and maintaining local cleanliness.

He believed the City Hall would continue to implement anti-spam regulations seriously, and it is necessary to crack down on the action of garbage worms.

However, to build a green city, it must also extend to a wider scope, such as requiring the state and the federal government to cooperate to formulate a set of effective measures to reduce vehicle emissions.

He said that it is well known that car exhaust emissions are one of the keys to air pollution, which in turn hinders the goal of building a green city.

Therefore, he hoped the Ministry of Communications can follow the greening policies of other countries and increase the use of electric vehicles.

In the planning of more locations mentioned by the mayor as a cheap place to sell, Shen Fei pointed out that in the urban area of Kota Kinabalu alone, there are many open-air parking lots that are vacant during the night, which can be used very well.

He said that if the City Hall could formulate a comprehensive hawker licence application procedure, people can apply for it in a simpler and faster way, which could help to promote the local economy, increase the night consumption and leisure places, which can create a win-win situation for both parties.

In any case, he believes that the new mayor must outline the new plans as soon as possible so that the public can understand more clearly City Hall’s future plan that can benefit the people.