Govt mulling spatium concept in urban development

PUTRAJAYA: The government is considering introducing the spatium concept in urban development for more efficient land management, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Spatium entails creating overlapping development on existing ones, utilising cavities and gaps, both above and below ground, to meet increasing demand for land.

“There are many branches of land administration which can be explored to further improve the delivery system,” Dr Wan Azizah said at the National Land Day celebrations here yesterday. Also present were Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa.

Dr Wan Azizah said the government also planned to introduce the electronic documents for land ownership and start a private lease scheme to open up more land that had development potential.

She said the government is also looking into amending the Strata Titles Act to incorporate efforts towards urban rejuvenation as a way of solving the issue of urban decay in old cities like Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and George Town.

Dr Wan Azizah said that since the rate of urbanisation had increased by about 75 per cent since the 70s, land administration must be prepared to support population increase in the cities.

She also stressed that in the desire for national development, the aspect of preservation and conservation of national heritage land must not be forgotten.

“National heritage areas such as the Perdana Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, Tanjung Bungah and Batu Ferringhi in Penang and the Portuguese Village in Melaka must be preserved for future generations.

“As such, I urge all relevant parties to look into the laws which can be amended to set up National Permanent Reserves,” she said. — Bernama