Green roadmap for Cyberjaya

Monday January 25, 2010

CYBER CORRIDOR By CHARLES FERNANDEZ

charlesf@thestar.com.my
AT THE Copenhagen Climate Change conference in December, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Malaysia was committed to reducing its carbon emissions by up to 40% by 2020.
According to 2006 United Nations data, Malaysians emit 7.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita, which is almost equivalent to an average person in the industrialised world, although we are a developing country.
Malaysia, underlined by its Green Technology Policy 2009, aims to harness green technology development in the country, which would be the catalyst to accelerate the national economy and promote sustainable developmemt.
In line with this policy, Cyberview Sdn Bhd (CSB), the landowner of Cyberjaya, has taken the leap forward to identify the cause of the lacklustre performance in its development and spearhead the development by identifying solutions to bring Cyberjaya back in line with the government’s aspirations and transform it into a world-class cybercity.

Central cooling system: Pendinginan Megajana Sdn Bhd, shown here with one of the thermal energy storage tanks.

As pointed out by former CSB managing director Datuk Redza Rafiq, before planning the city, they had spoken to the stakeholders, namely, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDec), the Sepang Municipal Council (MPSp), another development company, Setia Haruman, its people and the companies to find out what they hoped to see and then identified the initiatives that would benefit the community.
Cyberjaya’s success story had not only brought in foreign interest but also continued to attract the attention of other cities in and around the region.
In a presentation entitled “Using creativity, culture and diversity in the revival of Cyberjaya” at the recent Asia Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) 2009 held in Incheon, South Korea, Redza shared with about 1,000 city administrators, business leaders and town planners from around the region, the five-year recovery plan to pull Cyberjaya out of the doldrums it was in after its inception in the late 1990s.
However, he contended that more needed to be done and Cyberview would be tabling recommendations to the government to allow for additional tools to be implemented.
Cyberjaya’s participation in the summit also enabled them to understand the common global predicament faced by many city administrators and town planners around the world.
Most case studies presented during the summit highlighted human capital as the main factor in the development of a city, and in managing Cyberjaya, Cyberview has taken this factor into consideration and implemented several initiatives to address it.
While in Southe Korea, the Cyberview delegation also took the opportunity to visit Jeollanm-do Province, a four-hour drive from Seoul. The purpose of the visit was to get a better understanding of initiatives made by the local authority.
Under the recently announced Budget 2010, Cyberjaya is set to have its best year yet as several initiatives will culminate in the country’s premier cybercity being a showcase township of Green Technology.
“It is a call for the transformation of Malaysia into a high-income economy through green technology that has been identified as the next global engine of growth,” Redza added.
To this end, CSB has come up with an entire roadmap of green initiatives that will result in both Cyberjaya and its neighbour Putrajaya being developed as pioneer townships in Green Technology, as a showcase for the development of other townships.
Redza revealed that CSB, through its subsidiary Pendinginan Megajana Sdn Bhd, had embarked on a district-cooling system as an initiative to lower the cost of doing business in Cyberjaya, to remain competitive and to preserve the environment.
Some RM58mil will be invested for the expansion of the system in the next two years, and the initiative would involve buildings currently still under construction in Cyberjaya.
District cooling is said to reduce electricity usage by more than 65% compared with traditional air-conditioning systems and it is learnt that more than 50% of the existing buildings in Cyberjaya are already using the system.
Cyberview and the Cyberjaya stakeholders have allowed 12 years to pass by and with four initiatives launched by CSB under the Economic Stimulus Package, it is just the right sneak peek into what’s in the pipeline for this intelligent city in the year 2010.