National Physical Plan Malaysia: Land Use Planning Information System

I am delighted to learn from the National Physical Plan (NPP) report on the establishment of the NPP Land Use Planning Intelligent System (LaPiS) to be maintained by the NPP Division, Department of Town and Country Planning.

It was further reported that:

a. LaPiS is set up as the info-structure framework to support the whole process of implementation, monitoring and review stages of the NPP. It will contain support modules which can track land use changes and monitor the application of selected land use policies.

b. To ensure conformity among the different tiers of land use planning, LaPiS will be developed within a framework of an integrated land use planning information system which will comprise three components i.e. LaPiS, State Land Use Intelligent System (SLaPiS) and District Land Use Intelligent System (DLaPiS). This integrated framework will allow for effective data and information sharing among the three levels of organisations responsible for physical planning.

Although the goal of the NPP is towards 'THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN EFFICIENT, EQUITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL SPATIAL FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE THE OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY TOWARDS ACHIEVING DEVELOPED NATION STATUS BY 2020', and its Principle P1 is "Develop the country as a single integrated unit", the NPP is "confined to Peninsular Malaysia and does not apply to Sabah and Sarawak which are governed by different planning legislations". Thus, IMHO, the NPP is currently more suitable to be called "Peninsular Malaysia Physical Plan".

Reference link: National Physical Plan Malaysia