SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government is requesting an injection of funds from the Federal Government in the upcoming Budget 2024 to help in the rejuvenation of old towns and areas in the state.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari (pic) said rejuvenation was necessary to ensure that development in these areas could be combined with the pace of development in the surrounding new areas.
He said old urban areas such as Petaling Jaya, Ampang, Gombak, Cheras and Pandan were developed with a development model in the 1970s and 1980s that is no longer suitable for the current needs of the population.
“However, its implementation involves a large policy and requires financial support from the Federal Government, in addition to approval and permission from landowners,” he said at the Selangor-level Budget 2024 Roadshow which was attended by Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim Chee Keong here yesterday.
Amirudin said the matter was one of the issues that the Selangor government hoped would be given due consideration during the tabling of the Budget 2024 on Oct 13, in addition to infrastructure, plans to address floods, and efforts to increase the people’s income.
He added that if the process of rejuvenating these old urban areas was not done, their economic value and potential would decrease in future.
Apart from that, he said one of the issues faced in old urban areas such as PJ Old Town was that the 99-year lease period would expire in a few years.
“Some of this land is worth more than RM1mil per lot, and in terms of the current economic activity, traders may not be able to pay for it, and that is an example of an issue that we need to address,” he said, Bernama reported.
Meanwhile, Sim said Selangor was the last location for the engagement sessions of the Budget 2024 Roadshow, which until now has interacted face to face with approximately 8,000 participants and received a total of 10,000 responses through the Budget 2024 portal.
“We will look at all the feedback and suggestions received, including what was proposed by the Selangor Mentri Besar earlier, especially since Selangor is a state which has rapid growth and needs to explore new development areas,” he said.
