Children playing with bubbles during the celebration at MBSP headquarters in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam. – Photos: LIM BENG TATT/The Star
THE early morning rain did not stop hundreds of people flocking to the third anniversary celebration of Seberang Prai City Council (MBSP) at its headquarters in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam in Penang.
Activities lined up included a car boot sale, a sale by Fama, children’s colouring contest, cooking competition for council staff along with cake decoration contest for their children, 8R carnival and karaoke competition.
Food trucks were available to serve hungry visitors.
MBSP mayor Datuk Azhar Arshad was pleased to see council staff joining in the activities.
“Programmes like this can fuel unity and teamwork among MBSP employees as well as strengthen relationship between management and staff,” said Azhar in his speech at the event.
After the upgrade to city status, he said MBSP shouldered greater responsibility to maintain its achievements and realise the people’s hopes of turning Seberang Prai into a smart, sustainable city.
“With a comprehensive roadmap, the council can now focus on efficient governance, accountability and responsiveness.
“MBSP needs to ensure plans can be implemented transparently and effectively and be more proactive and inclusive in providing services and infrastructure,” he said.
He highlighted that at the ninth Citynet Congress 2022 held in Kuala Lumpur, MBSP took second place in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) competition for its Kota Aur village.
An article on the village was displayed on the Citynet website and garnered 1,119,063 views.
“Others on the shortlist were Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Suwon City, Colombo, Matsuyama, Sidoarju Regency, Seoul Digital Foundation, Lalitpur City, Hanoi City, Quezon City, Seoul Tourism Organisation and Think City,” said Azhar.
“In addition, after winning the ‘One Planet City Challenge 2022’, MBSP has qualified to join the ‘We Love Cities’ campaign which started on Sept 19 and will end on Oct 31.
“This is a public engagement campaign that allows people around the world to vote for their favourite sustainable cities and post improvement proposals for these cities.
“The city that gets the most votes through social media will be recognised as the ‘Most Loveable City’ globally.
“Therefore, I request all MBSP employees and attendees here to cooperate by giving us ‘likes’ on social media,” he urged.
Azhar also presented prizes to winners of several competitions that were held throughout the Seberang Prai City Day celebration month.
One of them was the ‘Bring Your Mealbox To Work’ competition by the LA21 working committee which encouraged MBSP staff to bring breakfast or lunch in their own containers to reduce the use of plastic.
MBSP received 27 entries and the winner was selected based on creativity and the number of days shown in the videos uploaded through the TikTok application.
The ‘Clean Village and Park Competition 2022’ was held with the aim to encourage communities to clean and beautify their parks.
Prizes were also given to exemplary contractors for their street cleaning services in Seberang Prai.
“The aim is to create healthy competition among contractors because it is a catalyst for getting the best service,” said Azhar.
Children playing with bubbles during the celebration at MBSP headquarters in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam. – Photos: LIM BENG TATT/The Star
Azhar (in white) visiting an exhibition booth.
Children taking part in a colouring contest.
