 It has not been an easy two-and-a-half years since George Town gained world heritage site status, but government agencies, at federal, state and local levels, have been working closely with civil society and private property owners, forging sustainable partnerships that will propel the rejuvenation of the city. Neil Khor
CITIES and city-regions are the powerhouses of development for the future. Come 2020, some 70% of Malaysians will be living in urban areas. Preparations are already underway to make the best of talent and capital concentrated in our cities. Under the 10th Malaysia Plan, cities are finally being given the attention they deserve. In Penang, although efforts to have George Town listed by Unesco as a world heritage site (WHS) began more than a decade ago, the city's potential for becoming a cultural heritage tourist centre and an international brand is now slowly
being realised.
Today, three years after Melaka and George Town were successfully listed as WHS, most Penangites are finally catching up with foreign investors who have realised that the historic city is a goldmine. In 2010, George Town managed to attract international attention after being listed as the world's street-food capital and a destination of choice for international travellers by The New York Times. Reflecting the potential of Penang's attractiveness to a new class of well-heeled visitors, Clove Hall, a boutique hotel just outside the world heritage site, has made it into the prestigious Conde Nast Traveller Hot List.
In fact, the last 12 months have proved to be a period of rapid adjustment for George Town. A lot of work has been done to help secure the city's WHS status. A good example of the government working with civil society and the private sector is the drawing up of a special area plan for the historic city. This began with a baseline study involving a population census and land use survey carried out by the Department of Town & Country Planning (JPBD), the George Town World Heritage Incorporated, the Penang Island Municipal Council in coordination with Think City Sdn Bhd - a special purpose vehicle set up by Khazanah Nasional Bhd to encourage urban rejuvenation work in George Town.
Rejuvenating a hollowed-out city
While the special area plan is seen as an attempt to protect George Town's past, it is in actual fact crucial to the city's rejuvenation. However, understanding George Town's historical development is key to its future success. The city was built as a regional port serving imperial British trade. The living culture and architectural legacy that is now universally recognized as a WHS is a testimony to this unique development of trading ports in the Straits of Malacca, still the world's busiest sea lane. However, in the last 30 years, especially after the loss of its free port status, Penang turned its back on George Town. The manufacturing economy, based in Bayan Lepas and spreading across the Penang channel to Seberang Prai, superseded the port economy. The result has been an urban sprawl dependent on cars and unsustainable development with severe consequences for the environment.
Since its WHS listing, George Town has had a new lease of life. From the baseline study, we know that there are some 4,000 buildings in the WHS, evenly distributed in the core and buffer zones. The study also reveals that 10,000 people live in the site with the population swelling to 25,000 during the day as people come into the city for work and recreation. However, there are clear challenges that make rejuvenation work important if the city is to survive in the longer term: an ageing population, a predominantly male population contrary to state and national trends and the fact that most of the residents are non-professionals. This is very different from the older composition as recorded in the McTaggart Survey of 1964 in roughly the same geographical space. Then, there were twice as many residents from a much wider social spectrum.
Signs of decay, considered part of George Town's charm by foreign visitors, are indications that the city is sufferring from neglect. Some 17% of the buildings in the WHS are vacant or dilapidated while it is estimated that at least 100 shophouses have been converted into swiftlet farms. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like the Penang Heritage Trust estimate the number to be much higher.
There are also problems with the sewerage system and drains that are clogged up. Also, as some 85% of the city is in private hands, there are obvious limits to what the government can do.
The key to unlocking George Town's potential lies in the rejuvenation efforts currently underway. It must be remembered that it was civil society action and community mobilisation that started the movement to list George Town as a WHS. If at one time, rent control froze investments to improve and maintain properties, the repeal of the Rent Control Act in 2000 brought about serious new challenges. Soon after the WHS listing in 2008, house prices have shot up. The result is that the stock of affordable housing in George Town is in sharp decline, putting the city's unique living heritage under pressure.
It has not been an easy two years but governmental agencies, at federal, state and local levels, have been working closely with civil society and private property owners. Realising the need to forge sustainable partnerships between the stakeholders in the city and to provide incentives for private property owners to invest in George Town, Think City initiated the George Town Grants Programme (GTGP), the fi rst of its kind in Malaysia. Based on the federal budget of 2009, the GTGP is designed to be a catalyst for urban rejuvenation, providing grants to private property owners and NGOs.
Think City also provides technical grants, working closely with the George Town World Heritage Incorporated and the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP). This collaboration is a new way of working where public-private partnerships are forged on the basis of public good. This is not a new approach but what is refreshing is the process of community engagement. In the case of the pilot greening project in Carnarvon Street, a public survey and exhibition was conducted before the scheme was implemented, giving residents and stakeholders a chance to participate in the decision-making process. The trees and the design of the planting scheme plus the maintenance plan were funded by Khazanah Nasional as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.
The George Town Business Improvement District Scheme (BIDS)
No urban regeneration effort can succeed without the ability to forge sustainable partnerships. This involves a change of mindset in how cities are managed. In the French city of Lyon, another Unesco WHS, it took city managers three decades to get their act together. The same goes for Edinburgh, where a heritage management plan was finally drawn up and implemented a good decade after the Unesco listing. The reality is that local governmental bureaucracy the world over often operates on an urban planning paradigm. In our case, city management follows the colonial template with very little consideration for cultural heritage and architectural legacy. Under the Government Transformation Programme, consensus-building and the forging of partnerships between government, civil society and, in this case, property owners will help George Town become a more liveable place.
George Town is perhaps luckier than most other historic cities. As early as 1973, under the Central Area Planning Unit (CAPU) which gave rise to Komplex Tun Abdul Razak (Komtar), a conservation plan for George Town was formulated. Komtar, according to its architect Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, was supposed to be a "city within a city". It was not only the tallest building in Southeast Asia when built in 1979 but was supposed to include a transport hub, roof gardens and even affordable housing. If George Town is to become an international city, the CAPU plan has to be revisited.
Today, some 40 years later, the Komtar project is finally complete, with the opening of Belleview's retail outlet Avenue First. The Penang Development Corporation (PDC) also announced that the land along Prangin Canal (Komtar Phase 5) will be landscaped and converted into an inner city park. Think City, working with the PDC, was able to bring together all the major property owners and stakeholders in the Komtar-Ivory Times Square area in order to revisit the original vision by CAPU. The stakeholders agreed that there must be better connectivity through green and covered walkways to link all their properties together. Two other immediate concerns included better security and cleanliness.
Led by Datuk Rosli Jaafar, general manager of the PDC, a protem committee comprising key stakeholders has been set up to look at the possibility of introducing a business improvement district scheme (BIDS), which was introduced by Canada and has achieved great success in the US and the UK. Better Bankside is a successful BIDS that features the Tate Modern museum and the Globe Theatre. A BIDS allows private property owners to work together to promote a common agenda. In this case, it is to make the Komtar- Ivory Times Square area better connected, greener, safer and cleaner.
In all these efforts, the MPPP and the George Town World Heritage Incorporated are active participants. The main purpose of the BIDS initiative is to augment existing local council services. Like any other local council, the resources of the MPPP are severely stretched and publicprivate partnerships through the BIDS initiative bring to the table expertise and resources from the private sector. A sharing of resources will enable better traffic management and better information for visitors. Few Penangites know that there are over 4,000 parking spaces available in the George Town BIDS area.
Waterfront potential
 Other than new thinking in urban management, one of the biggest boosters for the rejuvenation of port cities is the rehabilitation of the waterfront. Many European and Asian cities that have successfully improved their living standards have found new uses for their waterfronts. In Marsailles, the old port area, not unlike George Town's railway and passenger piers, has been converted into visitor attractions featuring cafes, restaurants and public performance venues. Sydney's The Rocks is the Antipodean equivalent featuring artistic and crafts works. Closer to home, Singapore's Clarke Quay and Boat Quay now have new uses that are generating new types of jobs for Singaporeans.
Over the years, George Town has lost its traditional seafacing orientation with most of its waterfront off -limits to the public. The stretch of coastline from the Esplanade to the Clan Jetties has tremendous potential but to be really successful, Penang must be ready to do something world class. The signs are positive. Already, a water taxi service will link Straits Quay in Tanjong Tokong to the E&O Hotel. This could be the fi rst step in George Town's rejuvenation, with a waterfront that can be a tremendous economic driver and visitor attraction. More encouragingly, major property owners in Weld Quay, starting from the Boustead building all the way to Wisma Yeap Chor Ee, have decided to rehabilitate their buildings.
 However, the biggest potential for the rejuvenation of George Town lies in the historic city's connection with Butterworth. The old ferry service, started at the turn of the 20th century by Beng Brothers, could potentially be the new nexus for Greater George Town. The latter is a potential urban hub comprising historical George Town and Butterworth new town. By 2015, Penang Sentral, the northern region's transport hub very much like KL Sentral, will be built in Butterworth. This logistics hub will link Butterworth to the Klang Valley and even Singapore by high-speed rail. Much like the Hong Kong-Kowloon model, the historic city of George Town can be linked to the proposed Penang Sentral, forming a new municipal core. The economic impact of this type of improved connectivity should propel Penang into the next stage of its development as the "international city" envisioned by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Penang as a regional hub
In December 2010, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that Penang will be made the preferred regional hub serving not only North Malaysia but also the wider Asean region. Moreover, the George Town conurbation (including Butterworth and Kulim) is the biggest urban agglomeration in the region. The prime minister also announced that the federal government is already investing in 10 infrastructure projects, including the expansion of the Penang airport, the Second Penang Bridge, improvements to Penang port and the creation of a multimedia super corridor in Penang.
But to achieve maximum efficiency, Penang needs to synchronise its human capital, infrastructural development and match these with new global economic needs. If in the colonial period, Penang was a trading society, it was able to make the transition to a manufacturing economy in the 1970s, becoming one of the world's largest electronic production centres two decades later.
In this next phase of Penang's development, investments in infrastructure alone will not be enough. Both the state and federal governments need to work together to create a culture of excellence in the state. In this case, historic George Town has an important role to play not merely as an international brand that is on a par with other world heritage sites but also as a catalyst for the creation of better living standards. It can also be a premier education hub and a cultural heritage destination. A more liveable city filled with new opportunities will be attractive to talent and can help stem the brain drain.
Penang has little choice but to succeed and will need all the help it can get, especially from the Penang diaspora, if it is to diversify its economy to become more knowledge-centric. While we have achieved great success in our factories and hospitals (Penang constitutes 70% of all medical tourism in Malaysia), we need to improve our capacity to become more efficient and productive through the application of new technologies and by encouraging talent to stay.
The George Town WHS stands as a reminder of a time when Penang was truly a regional player and a leader in education, culture and ideas. It is now undergoing rapid change, with the Unesco listing as a catalyst for the making of a better city. With a much improved Komtar, a rejuvenated waterfront and better links with Penang Sentral in Butterworth, Greater George Town is poised to become a beacon for Penang's ambition to become a "habitat of choice" for investors, talent and innovation.
** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in a special focus on Penang in the Options section of The Edge of January 24, 2011. Dr Neil Khor is grants programme director at Think City Sdn Bhd
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