12 - The Re-emergence of Ipoh City: Toward a New Urban Pair with Kuala Lumpur

Summary

The implementation of transportation infrastructures has played a key role in the economic development of Malaysia by supporting the rise of urban and industrial centres. The extraction of natural resources, notably tin and rubber, has encouraged the establishment of roads and railways from the nineteenth century. Production areas, while witnessing an increase of their transport network, are linked to the major international gateways such as Klang, Penang and Singapore (Fau 2003). The States on the west coast of Malaysia — Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor — have thus seen an early development rarely known across Southeast Asia (World Bank 1955). Consecutive governments of Malaysia have conducted a development policy focused on the implementation of clusters along a corridor from North, Bukit Kayu Hitam and Padang Besar, to South, Johor Bahru, which is neighbouring Singapore (Fau 2003). The nodes of the corridor, by having a range of multimodal transports based on rail, highways, airports and ports, concentrate flows of investments, goods and labour. The connectivity based on a modern transportation network, does indeed allow the emergence of nodal cities, but also an integration of margins (see Map 12.1).

The first-rank cities of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, cover an international scope but are also facing congestion issues which can to a certain extent slow down their growth. To tackle the congestion matter, the use of storage areas and better interconnection with the hinterland has been implemented. The result of this spatial development is an increased complexity of the national and regional urban network and hierarchy (Goldblum and Franck 2007). This spatial reorganization leads to a redistribution of growth through the region and stimulates a great nodal region. The logistic model of a dry port is therefore used as a main tool which by its hinterland location and its land transportation infrastructures allows a terminal to act as supporting port (Walter and Poist 2003). Although it is not a landlocked country, Malaysia benefits from a dry port to relay its congested coastline (i.e. Naziri Khalid's contribution).