KK City Folk Fear High Rise Project Will Dwarf Historic Clock Tower

KOTA KINABALU 22 September: A proposed 16-storey hotel and shopping complex project that some city folk here fear will dwarf a historical clock tower will have to go back to the drawing board, said Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman.

He has directed the state Local Government and Housing Ministry to review the unpopular project.
"The Central Planning Board will reassess this project," he said after opening a Public-Private Partnership and Facilitation Fund Seminar here yesterday..



State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the state Environmental Protection Department had rejected the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the project due to various technicalities.

He said he and state Resource Development Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai had voiced their concern about the project in the state Cabinet.

Masidi had said there was no use in having the century-old landmark if it was to be overshadowed by the proposed commercial building.

City folk had voiced their worry on Facebook about the fate of the two-faced clock tower named after Jesselton's first district officer Francis George Atkinson.

They said the clock tower, the only structure in Kota Kinabalu that survived World War II, would lose its significance with the complex.

Earlier in the seminar, Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority chief executive officer Datuk Dr Mohd Yaakub Johari said Sabah expected to fully utilise all of the RM1.127bil injected by the Federal Government into the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) by the end of this month.

He said many development projects such as infrastructure, education, tourism and agriculture were on the verge of completion.

"Once all these projects are implemented, we will be able to proceed with other projects to fuel economic growth."

According to Mohd Yaakub, a number of private sector-led SDC projects were on-going through a public-private partnership.

He said those projects were being implemented within development clusters identified under the SDC Blueprint such as the Sabah Gold Coast Enclave which would focus on tourism development, Sipitang Oil and Gas Cluster, Palm Oil Industrial Clusters, Sandakan Education Hub, Keningau Integrated Livestock Centre and Sabah Agro-Industrial Precinct.