A new NCR Land Initiative has been approved by the Government in order to come up with a faster approach to provide security to native customary rights (NCR) land and to enhance the economic wellbeing of the land owners.
In announcing this new initiative, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak said "the State Government has always recognised that NCR land is an issue that is close to the hearts of our people. As such, this joint initiative between the State as well as Federal Government is to help the people create value to their idle land while at the same time addressing their concern about the long term security of their NCR land".
This is a joint initiative between the State and Federal Government following recommendations from the GTP Bumiputera Sabah-Sarawak Lab that was held in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in February and March early this year. This new initiative shall be carried out via a two-step process and with two deliverables.
First, the State Government will identify NCR land in all the divisions throughout the State for en-bloc survey. The purpose of en-bloc survey is to segregate genuine NCR land from State land. The Department of Land and Survey will then send out their surveyors to undertake block perimeter survey on the parcels of NCR land identified. Upon completion of perimeter survey, these parcels of land will be gazetted as Native Communal Reserves under Section 6 of Sarawak Land Code. This is the deliverable of the first step. This ensures claimants of NCR lands of their ownership within the gazetted area.
The second step involves the community whereby the NCR landowners themselves will need to sort out and agree on the boundaries of their lands within the gazetted area. This is to enable the Department of Land and Survey to carry out detailed survey and subsequently issue individual land titles to the landowners. The land titles will be issued under Section 18 of Sarawak Land Code. This is the deliverable of the second step.
In the past, there were many problems involving disputes between individuals within the communities and with the State over land boundaries and therefore, it has become very tedious and difficult to resolve land ownership. The two step process allows native communal reserves to be granted first whilst awaiting the individuals in the communities to agree amongst themselves their individual boundaries within the native communal reserve.
Based on the experience of the native estate program we developed by the LCDA and the owners of native land, it seems quite successful to engage the individual native landowners to realize the value of their land at an enhanced price once they could convert their land into a land bank to be developed in joint venture with the private sector; thus giving native land a proper value that they deserved as an earning asset.
This experience should therefore be enlarged to bring in more such programme under the aegis of other government agencies like FELCRA, SALCRA. The new initiative should be able to achieve the purpose of unlocking the economic value of NCR.
To kick-start this initiative, the Prime Minister has approved a Federal allocation of RM20million for the perimeter surveys of NCR lands. The Initiative will commence before year-end and will then be rolled out as part of the 10th Malaysia Plan. A Delivery Management Office (DMO) will be established to coordinate and monitor the implementation of this new initiative.
Since YAB Datuk Patinggi Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak assumed the leadership as Prime Minister of Malaysia, there is urgency to achieve our mission of a developed nation status by the year 2020. This requires transformational policies and strategies and quantum leap in our efforts. He has announced four strategic pillars to transform Malaysia, namely 1Malaysia Concept, Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the 10th Malaysia Plan. These constitute the platforms for transforming the country into a high income economy which is inclusive and sustainable.
The Prime Minister recognises the needs of the Bumiputra communities in Sarawak and Sabah. These specific needs have been identified through participation of our senior Government officers in various GTP labs that have been organized and sponsored by the federal Government through PEMANDU. One of the specific needs identified is with respect to the security and development of NCR lands.
Through the GTP Bumiputera Sarawak Sabah Lab held in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in February and March this year, proposals and financial requests have been submitted to the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the lab. This new NCR land initiative is one of the proposals of the lab. The rest of the proposals will be announced in due course.
The Prime Minister said "it is important that the development of the NCR land be expedited in order to accelerate transformation of the rural areas and provide landowners with higher income. The ultimate objective is for the land to be commercially developed to prosper the rural communities and thereby join the rank of the rest of Malaysians in the high income economy. I hope that the people will see the benefit of this exercise and give their full support to the State Government. In this way, they can participate in the grand vision of the Government to bring about greater prosperity to every Malaysian especially those in the rural areas. Only then will the new economic model become a reality for the rural communities".
Source : Kenyataan Akhbar ; Pejabat Ketua Menteri
A new NCR Land Initiative has been approved by the Government in order to come up with a faster approach to provide security to native customary rights (NCR) land and to enhance the economic wellbeing of the land owners.
