City competitive space and office development : Kuala Lumpur / Hazwani Harun

With globalisation, cities are facing increasing competitions as centers for activities
and nodes for multi-national corporations. Measuring city competitiveness is an
attempt to estimate a city's relative economic strength and potential. But while cities
do compete, their primary purpose is not to produce a marketable output nor to
maximize the rate of return on assets. Indeed, cities do not have one output nor clear
inputs. Nor can they be bankrupted or liquidated. As such, this research is been
undertaken to explore the physical and economic development of Kuala Lumpur
pertaining to the office development in order to achieve higher competitive city space.
To achieve this aim, the study start by review and discuss the general linkage
between the office development and competitive city space; investigate the roles and
influences of office development with regards to economic and physical development
in cities; analyse the behaviour of headquarters office in relation to the change of
office location; examine the issues and problems of office development trend in
Kuala Lumpur; and develop recommendations on office development in order to
achieve competitive cities. To understand about this research, the literature review
has been prepared which focuses on office development towards city
competitiveness. This covers an overview of its impact on built environment, role of
office development towards city competitiveness, factor influencing office location,
activities of the institutions of city competitiveness and management on sustainable
competitive advantage were discussed. The study reveals some of the experiences
on the growth of city form in urban area in several countries. The study area is Kuala
Lumpur, as the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country as well as rank at
26th position, out of 139 countries in Competitiveness Index. Kuala Lumpur is the
capital and economic centre of Malaysia. The Kuala Lumpur office market is robust
and is experiencing increasing demand for offices with the expansion of the services
sector. With the market poised to improve in terms of rents and capital values,
investment is strong with investor funds coming from other countries. These foreign
funds seek to invest in offices while a few are even participating in office
developments around Kuala Lumpur City through partnership with local developers.
From the analysis, the impact of office development in competitive city: Kuala
Lumpur, found that in term physical aspect, there are including impact on city
planning, infrastructure, urban structure and accessibility. While, in the economy
aspects the impact that are taken into account are congestion cost, other costs,
capital and competition which overall are moderate. This shows that, the impact on
city is unsatisfactory. Recommendations are according to which the area is “a
dynamic world-class centre for business and innovation. Its high-quality services,
creativity and adaptability promote the prosperity of its citizens and bring benefits to
all of Kuala Lumpur and the peripheral cities. The urban area is being developed as a
unified region close to nature where it is good to live, learns, work and do business”.