Malaysian tour to study urbanisation

THE delegation from Papua New Guinea is currently in Malaysia on a study tour to learn the national urbanisation policy model of Malaysia and learn from its experience.
The information would assist in the implementation of PNG’s own national urbanisation policy 2010-30, the National Executive Council (NEC) approved in June.
Chairman and director of the office of  urbanisation Max Kep on Tuesday pointed this out when denying a report in The National that Papua New Guinea had entered into a bilateral agreement with Malaysia to help plan development of towns and cities.
He said there was no such agreement signed or entered during the tour.
“There was no bilateral agreement reached between Papua New Guinea and Malaysia as reported on Tuesday, we were there to study how Malaysia planned to develop its towns and cities. However, there is an opportunity for greater collaboration between the two countries, if that was decided by the governments,” Kep said.
He said the trip was a success where the delegation learnt that Malaysia had gone through a lot of reforms in transforming its economy from agriculture-based to manufacturing and service-based.
Kep said the delegation noted that Malaysia had given equally high priority to physical planning and structural developments where the prime minister of Malaysia was the chairman of the national physical planning council which supervised the implementation of Malaysia’s national urbanisation policy and plans.
“In PNG, we have economic plans and money plans without having any physical plan, which provided spatial arrangements,” he said.