KK’s image can only grow for the better
Published on: Saturday, January 21, 2017
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AS A SABAHAN and long time resident of Kota Kinabalu, I am very happy and proud that Forbes, the world famous magazine for the rich and influential, has recognised KK as one of the 10 cheapest and affordable cities in the world.
The fact it has trained its focus on KK can only mean one thing – We are doing it right. Forbes’ recognition augurs extremely well for KK.
The recognition by Forbes is well deserved as the conscientious planning and effort to develop KK for the last 10 years is bearing results. Now that we got this under the belt, KK cannot stop and rest on this Forbes laurel.
With so many natural advantages and attributes, KK can aim for [a] the most liveable cities in South East Asia.
[b] the most beautiful city in Asia. [c] City with the best ‘sun set’ in the world. [d] An attractive cosmopolitan city.
[e] Or even an international city. For sure, KK is already the leading city in Borneo and BIMP-EAGA.
Kuching is nowhere near us. There are so many possibilities what KK can be. Aiming for these high titles should not be seen as frivolous for there are significant economic benefits to be derived for Sabah, particularly for KK residents.
My observation is that there are deliberate state government policies in place for achieving these lofty aims already. KK is being transformed beautifully, beyond recognition even to visitors who have been here just a few years ago. In the past, the only building we could be proud of was Menara Tun Mustapha [Sabah Foundation Building]. Now there is the newly completed iconic Chief Minister’s Department building just next to it.
There is UMS, shopping complexes, flyovers, condos and so many more hotels and resorts.
Of great significance is SICC [Sabah International Convention Centre]. When completed, it will boost KK’s image as an international city and add considerable prestige for our capital city. Worthy of note is the development of public facilities along KK’s scenic coastal frontage which on completion will rival the best in the world.
Datuk Musa has done the right thing by repossessing back all the coastal land that had been alienated or approved for alienation from Sabah Foundation to Shangri-La Tanjong Aru before he became CM.
Complaints of traffic jams will be eased considerably as I understand that the new JKR Director, Datuk Armulla has already drawn up a comprehensive traffic plan for the greater KK area. Ongoing construction of the fly-overs in Jalan Lintas and in front of the new CMD building is part of this plan. Eventually all the major junctions will have flyovers which will shorten overall travel time especially in the north/south direction.
In pursuit for these crowns, we must never forget the basic principle that the interest of KK citizens must come first. The most important point is that what is good for KK residents will be appreciated even more by foreign visitors. We must never be blinded to think that we should cater to foreign visitors at the expense or ignore the interest of the residents of KK. This may sound simple but a lot of cities, like Manila, Acapulco, Rio De Janeiro have made this fundamental mistake, all have millions of dire poor squatters and rich foreign visitors.
A well planned city with world class management can be a great generator of economic benefits.
This is more so as KK is the gateway for Sabah and Borneo. We can expect exponential increase of tourist arrivals when more facilities are in place. These facilities include roads that can open up more tourist attractions, access to beaches for Sabahans to invest in small and medium size boutique beach resorts. KK can be an outstanding destination for foreigners to invest and settle down as our ‘permanent tourists’!
Give it another 10 years, with the present set of and more proactive policies of the Sabah Government to come, I expect a lot of new business and employment opportunities will be generated as KK is set to become a lot more than just another cheap city. My confidence has been reinforced with the appointment of Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai by Musa. Since taking office, KK has seen considerable improvement. KK will get another big boost when he has completed the formation of the DBKK Economic Bureau. Among the many objectives of this bureau will be to look into development of closer economic and social relationship with sister cities. No doubt that this effort will attract considerable flow of investments and tourists into KK eventually.
Would I rather live in another city in Malaysia? Definitely not. I love KK and will not want to choose another place.
Apart from the growing physical development, there are many social and cultural happenings.
To me the best attraction is we Sabahans can get together, mingle with each other and above all, no race and/or religious bigotries like in W Malaysia! Just these alone are enough for me to love staying in KK!
Allow me to suggest a few of things that can make KK even more attractive to live and stay.
Though the increase in flights into KK has been tremendous in the last 10 years, we need more for the full potential growth of tourism. To do this, we must look into 5 to 10 times of more tourist arrivals from now.
Present KKIA’s capacity is near saturation. We will need to look into this problem with great urgency.
SICC can handle convention/meetings for a few thousand people. We need to ask ourselves, how can we handle the logistics [from KKIA to hotel, to SICC stc], their meals? Imagine if and when UMNO decides to hold its congress in KK – can we, as the host city, handle it successfully?
The authorities must look into and improve food health and hygiene. There must be regular checks on the level of pesticides in our vegetables with public announcements of the results, total stop unclean sales of meat in open hawker stalls. Likewise, ban sales of bombed fish and fish preserved with formalin.
In other words, if KK wants to be a first class city, it must ensure first class food hygiene.
I believe the State Government has already looked into revamping public transport for KK.
This is critically essential if we are to go beyond being one of the cheapest cities in the world.
Want KK to be a great city, better than just being cheap? Want KK to be truly connected to the outside world?
Want our professionals to be competitive and world class? Improve the quality and speed of internet connection first. Right now, it is truly and really very bad, slow, unreliable and expensive. The backup service is atrociously horrible and horrendously indifferent. Transmission of documents can take hours now!
As far as the internet is concerned, KK residents are akin to ‘cavemen’ living in the stone-age.
Or the smoke signals of the red Indians. The Sabah Government MUST DEMAND IMPROVEMENTS IMMEDIATELY from the service providers.
If we want KK to grow into the city that is ideal for us to work and live, the city that we can be proud off and the city for our children, a world class city, there must be good political leadership with positive and clear social and economic visions for the citizens, political leaders who can devise and make our dreams come true, who can make the government system easy for the citizens to make a good, honest living, political leaders who have management skills to run KK efficiently and smoothly. For sure, political leaders who cannot even manage their own financial matters and can be sued for bankruptcy are bad for citizens. They are not the type what we should be looking for. If they have failed in their personal financial management, what hope they can give us?
Their first priority is to raid the coffer to fill up their pockets or save themselves from bankruptcy.
Never trust a person, especially a politician, who cannot control their expenses or cannot earn enough honest money to keep “body and soul” together. These people do not deserve our trust and our votes.
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