States can make their own social impact assessment of projects - PLANMalaysia

GEORGE TOWN (Feb 20): All state governments could make their own social impact assessment (SIA) of a project involving an area of not more than 100 acres (40.47 hectares), said Department of Town and Country Planning (PLANMalaysia) director-general, Datuk Rokibah Abdul Latiff.

She said this was in line with the Class 3 SIA provision under the department which allowed state governments to carry out the SIA through the establishment of a state-level SIA Committee.

However, she added, so far no state government had set up such a committee.

Rokibah was speaking at a press conference after the opening of the seminar on ‘Penang 2030:  Manual of SIA’ by Chief Minister, Chow Kon Yeow, here, yesterday.

She said the committee should comprise experts in various fields relevant to a project to assess its positive and negative impacts, besides coming up with a mitigation plan.

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Asked on the time frame for state governments to establish the committee, Rokibah said currently there was no set period and the department left it to the state governments to appoint the panel of experts to the committee.

She said PLANMalaysia, meanwhile, fully supported the Penang government’s proposal that any SIA for a project should be prepared by an independent body for transparency.

Rokibah noted that normally, a developer would hire consultants to carry out the studies required such as the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and SIA, but she did not dismiss the possibility of the reports being manipulated.

"We fully support that whoever does a SIA must be an independent party, so that the SIA report is fair," she said.

On the proposed building of a new airport in Kulim, Kedah, she said a feasibility study must first be done to gauge its impact.

"The state or the project proponent has to submit the SIA of any project. But the SIA is (just) one of the tools to make a decision. It is not like the whole project is approved if the SIA is approved….no. 

“There are other decisions for consideration before approving a project... like the SIA, EIA, traffic and all other impact reports," she said.