1Malaysia Youth City' To Meet Youth Needs

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) -- The 1Malaysia Youth City, which will be built next year will become an important centre for youths in semi-urban areas. Town and Country Planning director-general Dr Dahlia Rosly said this city would also gather youths from both urban and rural areas to get connected and to be more resilient. "All current developments focus more on the big cities and rural areas. "But nobody is developing the semi-urban areas in the middle. So, we need to transform these underdeveloped semi-urban towns into modern, dynamic and inclusive '1Malaysia Youth Cities," she said after appearing in Bernama Radio24 programme 'Under the Radar', here, Friday. She said the project with the Rural and Regional Development Ministry would empower youths and give them the space to get involved in entrepreneurship and live a more mature life. Touching on the features of such cities, Dahlia said the 1Malaysia Youth City would be an exciting town with public facilities and infrastructure, and good communication networks such as WiFi and so on for comfortable living. "Apart from that, these towns will have areas to promote innovation and recreation for the 'Active City concept," she said. Dahlia said that complementing the 1Malaysia Youth City would be the "neighbourhood cities" with about 5,000 houses and a population of up to 12,000 people each. "These will have to be affordable homes, as youths may not have a high income yet and the houses have to be designed to suit the group," she said. Dahlia said currently, the department was preparing a concept plan paper and to identify the specific locations of these projects. -- BERNAMA