PEMUDAH

New Straits Times, 22 July, 2008.
By : Marc Lourdes

KUALA LUMPUR: The land transfer approval backlog has been almost eliminated, thanks to new initiatives set up by the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah).

As of Jan 31 this year, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has managed to reduce the dealing and non-dealing approvals backlog by as much as 95 per cent. Land alienation and strata title approvals have been trimmed by 62.44 per cent and 73.71 per cent respectively, while the backlog for qualified title to final title approvals has been lowered to a manageable 57.04 per cent.

Pemudah co-chairman and Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon said the backlog reduction had come mainly through computerisation. The ministry also oversees the e-Tanah programme, which was launched in Penang last October.

E-Tanah covers various land administrative matters such as disposal of land titles, temporary occupation licences, registration of ownership, redelineation of boundaries, land mergers, mortgage transfers and quit rent.

"About 99 per cent of the whole land transfer process is currently being done online. Only at the final documentation stage, where you get the land title, do you have to physically go and pick up the paperwork," said Yong.
The programme is expected to be launched nationwide later this year, as there is still some fine-tuning being done on the system.

"Most of the hiccups we are encountering has to do with incomplete paperwork or improper documentation given when people submit their applications," he said.

The ministry has also made amendments to 25 provisions under the National Land Code to further improve land management matters, which, said Yong, had a bearing on the ease of setting up businesses and homes.

The waiting period for a Department of Environment's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report has been significantly reduced from three months to only five weeks. To avoid further delays in the approval of the EIA report, the department has, from June last year, registered all competent consultants in the EIA report preparation, the list of which is available on its website.