Making Kuching a vibrant and dynamic city

WHEN Alfred Russell Wallace worked on his theory of evolution through natural selection following his explorations of the Malay Archipelago in a small hut not far from what is now Sarawak’s capital, Kuching, he noted how much of the state was unreachable due to its hilly terrain and dense forests.

It certainly would have taken the renowned British naturalist, whose work was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin’s writings, a great deal of effort to travel to his camp close to Mount Santubong. But now with urbanisation, the foothill of the mountain — named after a celestial princess — is merely a 45-minute drive from the state capital.

The development of Kuching has helped the largest state in Malaysia earn a key position in the country’s economic growth. Sarawak only trails behind Selangor and Kuala Lumpur in term of gross domestic product (GDP).

Its economy, which was previously heavily reliant on primary resources such as timber and forest produce and subsequently oil palm and petroleum, has diversified enormously in the last decade. Today, it is an industrial and services-based economy, making it less subject to the vagaries of global commodity prices.

But the focus has not only been on growing value-added industries to lure investments and talent. The state’s tourism sector is now the third largest contributor to the local economy. Mining, timber harvesting, agriculture and forestry, however, continue to dominate the economy.

Home to more than 40 sub-ethnic groups — the indigenous Iban makes up almost 30% of the population — Sarawak embraces its rich colonial legacy, revels in its fascinating 40,000-year history and celebrates its diverse ethnicities. These factors have for decades shaped the approaches taken in the state’s pursuit of development and urbanisation.

Kuching was somewhat sheltered from the woes of rapid urbanisation as federal development plans were more prevalent on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia for close to six decades since Independence. According to the Department of Statistics, Sarawak’s urbanisation rate stood at 53.8% in 2010, compared with 36% in 1991 and 15.5% in 1970.

The state capital’s unique position is the thing that drew Oliver Kumareyan Shanmukam — who left his full-time job in a media company in Kuala Lumpur in 2013 — to venture into the world of hospitality and tourism, hoping he would be able to retire comfortably at the age of 45. In the city which he now calls home, he owns and runs a budget hotel and laundry service with his Sarawak-born fiancée.

Relocating to Kuching was an easy choice, says Shanmukam, as the tourism business, which is still very much in its infancy, is progressing rapidly. “The most obvious reason is the low start-up capital. But the draw is the culture and people. The people here understand what harmony actually means — they observe respect and tolerate no elements that can cause strife,” he attests.

“From the perspective of running a business, if I were running a restaurant in Bangsar, I would have to pay RM15,000 for rent and RM150,000 for renovations (not including any furnishings). But in Kuching, I managed to start a restaurant for less than RM30,000 in 2013. I subsequently sold that to invest in a budget hotel and laundrette for RM80,000,” he adds.

Speaking over coffee at a local eatery, Shanmukam points to the mixed bag of patrons thronging the renowned establishment. “You will never see such a diverse crowd at a Chinese restaurant in Peninsular Malaysia, simply because of the deep-rooted suspicion that the food is not kosher. But here, everyone respects each other’s faith and knows their boundaries.

“This is what brings the tourists — international and local alike. They are not only looking for a brief sojourn from concrete jungles but also to experience cultural diversity.”

As a beneficiary of a number of international collaborations, including the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) initiative that was launched in 1994 as a cooperation initiative to accelerate economic development in the four member nations, Kuching is gradually becoming a destination of choice for business and leisure. Services, including tourism, make up about 32% of Sarawak’s economy, followed by manufacturing at 25%.

Last year, the state saw 4.5 million tourist arrivals, 2.5 million of whom were foreign tourists, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. In 2014, it received 4.86 million visitors, three million of which were foreigners.

Tourism alone is estimated to have contributed 15% to Sarawak’s GDP. According to the Oxford Business Group’s (OBG) report last year, the appeal lies in the fact that the state is not overly commercialised and offers a “more authentic experience”.

Archaeological evidence suggest that early humans lived in Sarawak 40,000 years ago — 30,000 years earlier than those on the Malay Peninsula. The subsequent arrival of Chinese traders in the 7th century; the migration of a myriad tribes from Kalimantan, Indonesia; and the proclamation of British adventurer James Brooke in 1842, who had arrived in Sarawak three years earlier, as Sarawak’s absolute ruler are some the main factors that have contributed to the state’s harmony, plurality and multi-cultural heritage.

Kuching today has a population of about 700,000. Serving as a gateway to the rich cultural heritage on the island of Borneo, the city covers an area of 125,000 sq km and is administered by two city halls.

Mayor (pictured, right) says Kuching North City Hall is geared towards turning the city into a low-carbon one, as the state grows more affluent. Abdul Wahap, who mooted the tagline Clean, Beautiful and Safe Enhancement Plan in 2013, says the five-year framework includes strategies, action plans, targets and very specific key performance indicators (KPI) to make Kuching a vibrant and dynamic city.

The low-carbon city concept is part of the federal government’s strategy to meet its greenhouse gas commitments. Malaysia — ranked No 2 in terms of emissions per capita in Southeast Asia in 2013 — expressly committed to reducing the emission-intensive sectors of GDP by 40% by 2020 from what it was in 2005 at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009. The government said it had achieved a 33% reduction as at end-2013.

City hall also aims to halve the amount of household waste and strive towards keeping the air pollution index below 50 all year round by 2017. “We have adopted a lot of green initiatives. Going green is a priority this year onwards, especially for new buildings as city hall has to approve all new [building] plans. We also encourage all the new public areas to have some form of green initiatives,” says Abdul Wahap.

“Rainwater harvesting, for example, is now a must. The water can be used for flushing toilets, gardening and cleaning. We encourage all new buildings to implement this. The buildings must also be disabled-friendly.”

Safety is also a priority. In fact, the state has installed over 70 closed-circuit television cameras all over Kuching to ensure security. However, getting the community on board is a challenge because of the lack of civic consciousness, and this situation is exacerbated by the growing rural-urban drift.

“People are coming from the villages thinking they can make a living in the city. But when they don’t get employment, there is a risk of shantytowns emerging around the city. This sets us back on our target,” says Abdul Wahap.

“We have to manage the new developments and existing villages in the city better. If this is not addressed, it can lead to many social problems.”

But one aspect of Kuching that has not progressed as quickly as the rest of its development is its public transport system, which is almost non-existent. Buses are a rare sight on the city’s roads, and this hampers efforts to push the tourism sector further, says Abdul Wahap.

A 2005 study conducted by Sarawak’s State Planning Unit found that the use of public transport had dropped 13.3% since the 1990s. On the other hand, the traffic volume has increased steadily. Abdul Wahap says traffic congestion in the city has gone from bad to worse. According to the Kuching Public Transportation Study, the city’s average peak hour traffic flow is 20kph.

City planners have suggested that the state implement the bus rapid transit system and the state government was reported as saying that it is working on getting several stakeholders to operate a fleet a of buses called MyBas — a pilot project under the Stage Bus Service Transformation programme by the Land Public Transport Commission — by early 2016. But so far, there has been no progress.

Cultural heritage

The transformation of Kuching has prompted various groups, mostly history enthusiasts, to restore noteworthy landmarks that commemorate the state’s colourful past and deep-rooted culture as well as promote its traditional arts.

Sarawak-based architect Mike Boon, who worked on the restoration of the old courthouse complex, says the conservation work in the state was the first to be done according to internationally accepted conservation principles and practices.

“The aim was to do as little as possible and as much as necessary to reinterpret the cultural significance of the place. But cultural heritage is not just about the buildings, it is important to understand that the underlying force is the people,” he says. “It is the people of Sarawak — they are our heritage.”

After the completion of the courthouse project, Boon worked on Fort Alice in Sri Aman and undertook the restoration of outlying areas of significance, such as Siniawan. The former gold mining town was returned to its past splendour as part of a community-based heritage conservation project.

Abdul Wahap says these initiatives have had a positive impact on the locals and this has encouraged the state government to put in more effort to preserve heritage. Nevertheless, the state is careful in positioning itself as a mass-market destination, according to OBG’s report, and vies for tourists from higher-income groups as they are considered “less disruptive”, have an affinity for “authentic, untouched experiences” and a “thirst for adventure”.

While this is proving to be a challenge as the targeted category of tourists are not likely to revisit Sarawak but seek out new experiences instead, the stakeholders are convinced the strategy will pay off in the long run.

Sarawak plays host to a number of events that attract international interest such as the Rainforest World Music Festival, World Harvest Festival, Mukah Kaul Festival and the Borneo Jazz Festival. The biodiversity of the state is another point of interest, says Gracie Geikie, the former CEO of Sarawak’s Tourism Board, as it helps to promote ecotourism.

Geikie, who is director of operations at the newly refurbished Aiman Batang Ai Resort and Retreat, says the large-scale development has generally not benefited the indigenous people of Sarawak. “Not wanting to lose their existing lifestyle, indigenous communities are open to this business concept and have started to adopt ecotourism to boost their income.”

Geikie also works with rural communities to educate them on the concept of ecotourism as Sarawak has more small villages than it has cities and towns.

In the area of preserving industrial heritage, Tanoti Sdn Bhd has been championing the craft of handwoven songket — an heirloom-worthy silk. The company specialises in weaving Sarawak songket, which has its roots in the Brunei Sultanate, and focuses on empowerment as it trains weavers from scratch.

Abdul Wahap says the state and its biggest city have become a “melting pot of many industries … just like its people”. “It offers one a bit of everything,” he adds cheerfully. 

SCORE: CATALYST TO SARAWAK’S DEVELOPMENT

IN its efforts to make Sarawak less dependent on commodities, the state government has focused on developing the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). In 2014, the state had the highest amount of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the country, amounting to RM8.4 billion, according to figures provided by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida). Much of this was attributed to the economic corridor.

SCORE covers an area of more than 70,000 sq km in central Sarawak. It has a long coastline of more than 1,000km, over eight million hectares of forests and almost five million hectares of arable and peat land suitable for agriculture.

The economic corridor has 1.2 billion barrels of known oil reserves, over 80 million tonnes of silica sand and more than 22 million tonnes of kaolin — a fine white clay that is a key component of cosmetics, ceramics and combat area medical equipment. It also has access to clean energy such as hydropower.

The Oxford Business Group says the Workforce Development Unit, which falls under the purview of the Chief Minister’s Department, estimates that about 2,500 direct permanent jobs, employing 70% to 80% locals, have been created since 2014 from SCORE investments.

Mida also says the state came in second in terms of proposed capital investments, amounting to RM9.6 billion. The FDIs were mainly due to investment in energy-intensive industries in areas defined under SCORE.

Traditionally, most Sarawakians have been subsistence farmers, planting cash crops such as rubber, pepper, cocoa and oil palm, which still provides livelihood for about one-fourth of the population. But many have moved to the four big cities of Kuching, Miri, Sibu and Bintulu to work in various industries. SCORE alone is expected to generate more than 8,700 jobs directly and up to 40,000 indirectly when it is completed in 2030.

Despite Sarawak’s immense potential to grow into a major player economically, accusations of corruption and cronyism are virtually a daily occurrence, putting a dent in the state’s otherwise flawless image. While the man in the street is proud of his heritage and legacy, many have criticised the state government over allegations of shady practices, heavy-handedness and monopolisation of major industries.

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This article first appeared in the Special Report Rejuvenating Cities Together, of The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on March 28, 2016. Subscribe here for your personal copy.