\nTUESDAY MAY 18, 2010 (THE STAR)<\/p>\n
Arch to go if it is unsafe, says Ng<\/p>\n
By CHRISTINA CHIN
\nsgchris@thestar.com.my<\/p>\n
GEORGE TOWN: The Botanic Gardens concrete arch will be demolished if it is unsafe, says Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.<\/p>\n
She said the contractor would submit a report on the alleged tilting of the arch by end of the week.<\/p>\n
“I have directed the contractor to ascertain whether the arch is indeed tilting and whether the structure will still be safe 20 years from now.”<\/p>\n
“If the report states that the structure is safe, what happens next will depend on the proposal of the Friends of Penang Botanic Gardens Society,” she told a press conference after meeting with several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to get their views on the garden’s expansion project yesterday.<\/p>\n
She said the society was appointed to represent the Penang Heritage Trust, Malaysian Nature Society, Social Economic and Research Institute and the public in coming up with a proposal for the project.<\/p>\n
Dr Ng said they also discussed about enhancing the Bamboosetum and Eco-Stream Walk.<\/p>\n
“I am now waiting for the NGOs’ feedback,” she said.<\/p>\n
The society’s representative Dr Liew Kon Wui said the NGOs would have to work within various constraints to “correct what went wrong.”<\/p>\n
Even if the arch was safe, he said the NGOs wanted it demolished.<\/p>\n
“We hope to come up with a proposal to bring down the arch without causing the ministry to incur too much cost,” he said.<\/p>\n
A press report on May 15 said the ministry ordered a halt to the construction work of two arches following reports that one of them appeared to be tilting.<\/p>\n
The arches are part of a RM7mil project to beautify the gardens.<\/p>\n
On a separate matter, Dr Ng said boutique homestay hotels that cater to a luxury, niche market would be Malaysia’s newest tourism product.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want new buildings. We want restored historical buildings where guests feel at home and pampered,” she said.<\/p>\n
The boutique homestay hotels would be high-end and exclusive, she added.<\/p>\n
“The quality of service must also be exemplary.<\/p>\n
“We want to attract tourists who stay longer and who have higher spending power,” she told reporters after presenting Clove Hall owner Christopher Ong with Malaysia’s First Boutique Homestay Hotel certificate.<\/p>\n
Dr Ng said Clove Hall would be a benchmark for other such hotels as it was the only Malaysian hotel to make the 2010 Conde Nast Hot List of New Places to Stay.<\/p>\n
Ong, whose Galle Fort Hotel in Sri Lanka was awarded the Unesco conservation award, said RM4mil was invested to restore Clove Hall to its former glory.<\/p>\n
“Restoration of this six-bedroom colonial bungalow took 18 months.<\/p>\n
“It was opened in September last year,” he said. Among hoteliers, making the Conde Nast list is akin to winning an Oscar in Hollywood, he added.<\/p>\n
Kemaskini Terakhir : 22 April 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TUESDAY MAY 18, 2010 (THE STAR) Arch to go if it is unsafe, says Ng By CHRISTINA CHIN sgchris@thestar.com.my GEORGE TOWN: The Botanic Gardens concrete arch will be demolished if it is unsafe, says Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. She said the contractor would submit a report on the alleged tilting of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arkib-tahun-2010"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101124,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101109\/revisions\/101124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motac.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}