MALAY RESERVE LAND ACREAGE AT NEARLY 5 MLN HECTARES AS OF JUNE LAST YEAR 

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- The total area of Malay Reserve Land (TRM) in Peninsular Malaysia reached 4,955,870.89 hectares as of June 30 last year, said Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, Datuk Sri Huang Tiong Sii.

He said  that the TRM area has increased by 2,533,150.8 hectares or 104.55 percent compared to the earliest recorded data by the Office of the Federal  Lands and Mines Department Director-General (JKPTG) in 1947, which stood at 2,422,720 hectares.

However, this figure does not include Penang and Melaka, as they do not have TRM enactments.

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"Matters related to TRM fall under state jurisdiction. Nevertheless, TRM-related issues are continuously discussed in the National Land Council (MTN) meetings at the federal level, which serve as a platform for negotiations on land matters between the Federal and State Governments," he said during the  Q&A session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was replying to a question from Young Syefura Othman (PH-Bentong) regarding the Federal Government’s actions to ensure that TRM does not decrease and whether there are mechanisms to address arising issues.

Elaborating further, Huang said that following the decision of the 69th MTN Meeting, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) acts as the coordinator for TRM data collection and that several engagement sessions with state land administrations, in collaboration with the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (JUPEM), have been conducted to obtain accurate TRM data.

He added that this data would then be used by the ministry to establish a centralised TRM database  for future development reference.

-- BERNAMA