For the past few weeks we’ve been talking about the planned revitalisation of the downtown districts of Kuala Lumpur. There's no point bringing new life, new businesses and a sense of renewed creativity and vigour to a neighbourhood unless its residents and those that use it feels safe. ...
We last spoke to Shin Tseng, one of the co-founders of the iconic retail, arts and community hub, REXKL, late last year (November 2020). He outlined some of the challenges that this placemaking icon and its tenants had faced over the first year of the pandemic, and detailed some of the creative pivots, like an inner city farmer’s market, that the building had undergone to try to better serve the downtown community....
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been speaking about the Kuala Lumpur Creative and Cultural District and the blueprint for change it represents. We spoke to Think City’s Matt Benson about the genesis of the KLCCD as well as PNB President and Group CEO Zulqarnain Onn about the recently launched Merdeka 118 Community Grants Programme....
Last week we announced the launch of a Community Grants Programme linked to the landmark Merdeka 118 development in KL Downtown’s district. The project is the first part to launch of a wide ranging initiative that Think City is spearheading, the Kuala Lumpur Creative and Cultural District....
Over the past decade, downtown Kuala Lumpur has been a particular focus of Think City’s work in Kuala Lumpur. As Think City Programme Director Matt Benson reminded The Citymaker in a recent podcast, Building A New Creative And Cultural District for KL, it’s not only the heritage core of Kuala Lumpur, containing a wealth of cultural assets, it’s also the iconic area in which Malaysia’s independence was declared. ...
On 27th June we celebrate the UN’s Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSME) Day. According to data provided by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), MSMEs make up over 90% of all firms and account, on average, for 70% of total employment and 50% of GDP. They are the heart of our economies and our communities, providing employment and much needed services. ...
Downtown. Sometimes all the noise and hurry masks underlying problems that you don’t notice when you’re listening to the music of the city. Kuala Lumpur’s heritage core has hollowed out...
With Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination scheme due to start in March, Matt and Maya look at some of difficulties that other countries have faced in their efforts to vaccinate the homeless. We speak to Aishwariya Krishna Kumar from Think’s City’s social resilience team about Think City’s programmes for people experiencing homelessness, its homelessness Registry Week Report and its involvement in NGOhub’s Homeless Services Registry. ...
As Malaysia undergoes its second major movement control order, Think City has released its first Malaysia Business Community Pulse Check Report, conducted in the third quarter of 2020. Focusing on the downtown areas of Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and George Town, the survey was designed to develop an understanding of the market conditions that business operators have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic...
This week we’re continuing the work-based theme and discuss the Malaysia Business Community Pulse Check Report, the result of a Think City Survey. An overview of the community-level effects of COVID-19 on individual Malaysian businesses in 2020, we speak to one of the report’s analysts, Joel Goh, senior manager and data specialist at Think City, about the report, its findings and its future. ...