Download February 2006 Issue - Malaysian Institute of Planners

28 PROFILEBERITA PERANCANG MEETSDATO’ MOHD FADZIL HJ.MOHD KHIR,DIRECTOR GENERAL OF JPBDAfter several postponements, Berita PerancangEditors finally get to meet Dato’ Mohd Fadzil Hj. MohdKhir, the Director General of Jabatan PerancanganBandar & Desa Semenanjung Malaysia (JPBD) onNovember 24th, 2005. He was so generous to spendthe whole afternoon with us. We hereby publishextracts from our conversation with Dato’ Fadzil.BP :What is your vision of JPBD’s role in KPKT and aswell as the nation’s development in the longterm? What are your plans for your tenure asDirector General?The ultimate vision of JPBD is to become the leadagency in town planning services in the country andeventually to the rest of the world. The role of JPBDshould go beyond its function as an advisor to theFederal Government or the Government of anyState, on matters relating to the town and countryplanning required under the TCP Act. Thedepartment is to become one of the key players inthe country’s decision making process.The amendment of TCP Act has given more role andpower to JPBD in nation building. The establishment ofNational Physical Planning Council, extension ofpower for State Directors of Town and CountryPlanning, the creation of Regional PlanningCommittee and the reviews of the various plansprepared after a certain period so that the contentsof the plans are in tandem with the Five Years Plansare among the major responsibilities empowered toJPBD through the amendments of TCP Act.With all these responsibilities, JPBD will become thekey player in the country’s development planningespecially those involving spatial planning.References should be made to our developmentplans (Structure Plans and Local Plans) and ourNational Physical Plan to ensure coordinationbetween socio economic planning and spatialplanning of the country. Planning Guidelines,Standards and other research findings by thedepartment can be fully utilized by otherdepartments such as National Housing Department,National Landscape Department and others in theirproject planning and implementation.With AFTA and WTO agreement on trade liberalizationfor professional services, our planners should be morecompetitive. Not only between the local planners butalso with foreign planners. This is important to ensurethat we will not be at the losing end as a result of thetrade liberalization.What I wish is for our practice and profession to bestronger, effective and more respectable in years tocome. Before, only a small portion of the communityknow or understand our profession. But now, thegrowing public awareness towards sustainabledevelopment, public start to recognize theimportance of JPBD in the improvement of thephysical environment. Thus, JPBD will have to playbigger role in promoting sustainable developmentthrough town planning practice and more effectiveplanning control system.BP :Do you see a role for you as CEO in improvingrelations in the planning field betweenSemenanjung Malaysia and Sabah andSarawak? And if so how do you see your role inbetter collaboration in planning with the townplanners in Sabah and Sarawak?Of course. Me and my predecessors have alwaysdone our share towards improving relations with townplanners from Sabah and Sarawak. The most crucialeffort in inviting them to adopt our Act 172 - we havedone this. For example during the process of the latestamendment to the Act, that is Act 1129 (that wasfinally approved in September 2001), our legal teamhave briefed these two states and in a way invitedthem to join in, but they have their own preferenceand need.Again after the Act has been approved, in 2002 whilewe are still preparing the National Physical Plan-whichcarries the word ‘National’, we have sent the NPPcore team to brief these two states in view of gettingthem to join in. While Sabah seemed to show someinterests, Sarawak is happy to just accept the spirit ofNPP but decided that they will do their own statewidephysical plan when the time comes.Nevertheless, this effort has not been completelyfutile as we are now helping Sabah on advisory level,in its preparation of Sabah Physical Plan.On a project level, over a number of years our SpecialProject Unit/Regional Planning Division has beenproviding key planning inputs to the preparation ofPusat Pentadbiran Persekutuan Sarawak Masterplanwhich is located in Rambungan Sarawak.Contd. inside on Page 20