An investigation into the social, economic and environmental impact on the local people`s perception of the development in the Iskandar Malaysia development region

Abstract

The objective of the research is to investigate the local people’s perception on the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Iskandar Malaysia development region. The Iskandar Malaysia development region was established in 2006 with the introduction of a new single authority known as the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA). This authority is governed by the statutory IRDA Act of 2007 with a new proposed master plan named Comprehensive Development Plan and Iskandar Malaysia development blueprints for the region. The literature review highlighted that the implementation of regional economic strategies in Malaysia has been successful in achieving development and economic growth objectives. However, there exists doubts that most regional developments shaped by this top-down approach may be susceptible to the conflict of wealth distribution between the urban and rural areas. Data from 916 respondents was gathered through a structured questionnaire to help answer the research questions. Additionally, content analysis from literature review was used to confirm and validate the findings derived from the questionnaire survey. Simultaneously, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the local authorities and development agencies involved in the planning and development of the Iskandar Malaysia Development region. These triangulation methods aimed at enriching and providing a thick description of the data. In essence, the study found that socio-economic backgrounds such as age, gender and income explained the variation in respondents’ perception towards the development impact in the Iskandar Malaysia Development region. Findings also showed that respondents lacked the necessary awareness about, and active participations in Iskandar Malaysia’s organisational background and development implementation schemes. This is needed in order to quantify any impact and feed the perceptions’ estimators into the Structural Equation Modelling, an important knowledge contribution of this work. This study concluded that although public participation has been long inculcated in the development of planning practices since the establishment of the Town and Country Planning Act 172 (Act 1976), the development of Iskandar Malaysia in 2006 has not been fully realized as propagated by the Act 172. Essentially, the findings are in line with the practices of Malaysian top-down government directive approach. Hence, public participation is imperative to the success of national and regional planning and development in Malaysia.