JOHOR BARU, Apr 4 — Johor needs a comprehensive, holistic and inclusive long-term master plan powered by high-tech innovation and design to protect the state from climate disasters like the recent floods, in the future.
Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said thus, this demands a strong cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder drive between policy makers, academicians, key industry players and technology developers, to overcome these challenges together.
“One of the pressing issues that we are facing is the floods, which has now become a recurring climate impact in Johor. This disaster, among others, is the adverse effect of climate change, urban planning and not to mention the geographical landscape in certain parts of Johor that are on par or lower than the sea level.
“The recent floods point to the fact that if we do not address this, it will worsen our situation in Johor. This climate disaster has caused destruction, both financially and to communities. Millions have been lost. Local government, businesses, industry, and most importantly — the people have suffered,” he said this in his keynote address at the “Johor Conversations: A Sustainable Johor Rooted In Resilience” Forum, here today.
His speech was read by Johor Tourism, Environment, Heritage and Culture Committee Chairman K. Raven Kumar.
On food security, the Machap assemblyman said Johor was strongly committed in taking the lead in that sector.
He said the global food crisis topped with recent domestic issues has made the state realise the importance of developing a large-scale supply chain for food to meet the ever-growing needs of Johor’s population.
“The unstable trend of food production in exporting countries has prompted Johor to take up a more structured strategic approach in establishing a self-sufficient system of sustainable food production to ensure food security for the rakyat.
“Through sustainable development, I am confident it will support Johor’s position as an attractive investment destination that will continue to be strengthened, thus contributing to the gross domestic product of the state,” Onn Hafiz added.
To date, Johor has generated impressive revenue while empowering its people by creating thousands of job opportunities through various food security development initiatives which include vegetable and fruit production activities as well as poultry and egg.
“Beyond this, we are proud to see the rapid growth in essential food industries, fisheries, agro-based industries as well as ruminant and dairy livestock.
“I hope that today’s roundtable session will discover key areas of improvement while providing solutions embedded in new technological innovations as well as sustainable farming practices. In the same vein, I expect that there will be new input and ideas in terms of improving usage of land and water supply,” he added. — Bernama
