Following in the footsteps of George Town and Malacca, the Perak state government is now seeking to list Ipoh as a world heritage site under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
"Efforts are already under way. We are now preparing the nomination dossier and are expecting to submit it to Unesco in two months," senior state executive councillor Datuk Hamidah Osman said after launching the Ipoh Heritage Trail here yesterday.
She said several buildings and places in the city centre had been identified as heritage structures, adding that the state government had instructed the Ipoh City Council to take steps to ensure a successful listing.
"Under the Unesco guidelines, the city's Old Town, which is the area surrounding Ipoh Padang, has been chosen as the core segment in the nomination dossier."
Hamidah, who is state Tourism Committee chairman, said pressure from intense redevelopment of parts of the city and the repeal of the Rent Control Act in 1997 had adversely affected the image of Ipoh as a city steeped in cultural heritage.
To protect the character of the city from being eroded further by modern day development, she said the state government decided to take steps to maintain and preserve the city's cultural identity while optimising development using the heritage sources available.
"It is the state government's hope to see Ipoh, which started off as a village by the banks of the Kinta River in 1876, be preserved and conserved as a cultural heritage city and be listed as world heritage site.
"The heritage side of Ipoh has evolved historically and aesthetically over the last few generations. This city was built on the legacy of the tin mining industry. This aspect is intrinsically linked with Ipoh.
"There is no doubt that the city's history and cultures were created around the tin industry," she said.
To attain this aim, the state government has proposed that all future developments within the city, especially in Old Town, follow policies and guidelines outlined in the city's structural and local plans and heritage-related documents prepared by the Ipoh City Council.
The parties involved in the preparation of the nomination dossier are the Ipoh City Council, Kinta Heritage Group, Perak Tourism Action Council and the National Heritage Department.
Hamidah said that as part of efforts to rekindle the people's interest in the cultural heritage of the city, the state government had decided to introduce the Ipoh Heritage Trail programme which would take place every Saturday at 8am.
The trail would start from the Ipoh railway station and end at Concubine Lane (Jalan Panglima), covering 24 buildings and places associated with the early history of the city.
