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Downtown Kuala Lumpur is being reimagined, not just as a cultural destination, but as an economic engine. Through initiatives like the KL Festival, the city is positioning itself as a vibrant, inclusive space where creativity, commerce, and community converge. But how do arts and culture translate into real economic value? And can festivals truly drive urban regeneration?
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00:00Downtown Kuala Lumpur is being reimagined not just as a cultural destination but as an economic engine.
00:06Through initiatives like the KL Festival, the city is positioning itself as a vibrant inclusive space where creativity, commerce and
00:14community converge.
00:15But how do arts and culture translate into real economic value and can festivals truly drive urban regenerations?
00:22Joining me in the studio right now is Izan Satrina Muhammad Salahuddin, Senior Director at ThinkCity.
00:28I want to say thank you very much Izan for joining me.
00:31Firstly, I want to talk about creative and real economic values being combined together and taking a look at Edinburgh
00:37Fringe that returns 33 for every £1 of public funding.
00:43How do you make the case to a finance-minded audience that RM3M is a sum capital allocation and not
00:52just even art subsidy?
00:54Thank you Nida and Selamat Hari Raya to you.
00:56Selamat Hari Raya.
00:57I think every festival or creative, let's start with culture and creative economy, is a known engine or economic engine
01:09for a city.
01:09So a lot of the work that's being done not only is, it's an intended design strategy where we work
01:18with the creative industries to ensure that the city also brings, is brought to life through creative industries.
01:24So when we look at Edinburgh or other festivals around the world, it is no doubt that they have brought
01:30economic results into their city and when we look at Edinburgh, when we look at Manchester, they are quite established
01:37and hence why you see big numbers.
01:39But if we come back home a bit to Georgetown or Kuala Lumpur, there is a result of every ringgit
01:47being spent, up to two to seven ringgit is brought back into the city.
01:54But mind you, for platforms like Georgetown Festival, they've been around for many years.
01:59So KL Festival is in its second year and we are hoping to also build the same momentum and bringing
02:07the same results back into Kuala Lumpur, especially when KL is the capital of Malaysia.
02:14In Georgetown, if I can also again make it as a case study, when we started work there, we were
02:22established, ThinkCity was established in 2009, a year after Georgetown was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
02:29And we were actually established to look into how we can bring people back into the city, how can we
02:37leverage on conservation and preservation and ensure that there is an impact to driving local economy, people economy.
02:46And part of it was actually, of course, preserving all the hardware, all the buildings, adapting or improving shop houses,
02:56etc., etc.
02:57But beyond hardware, there is also importance in also driving software.
03:03So what is the soul of the city beyond hardware?
03:07And hence how Georgetown Festival actually started.
03:10And we're also taking the same principle and approach to Kuala Lumpur and ensuring that whilst we build the momentum
03:17on Visit Malaysia year, KL has just been recognized as a UNESCO Creative City of Design.
03:25In addition to PM recently launching Warisan KL about a year ago, the software strategy is also coming into play.
03:35So KL Festival is now being rolled out on May 6th to the 31st.
03:40I like that the main focus is not only focuses on the hardware, but also the software elements to create
03:45value and also ignite the soul of the cities.
03:48And taking a look at the things cities were impenning, produce a lot of remarkable commercial outcomes.
03:54What's the honest case for replication in KL?
03:58So I think the population and catchment is absolutely different.
04:05And Georgetown has had a head start in terms of its planning and design.
04:11And we were provided that mandate much earlier.
04:14So more than 15 years ago when we started work in Georgetown.
04:18But the results are, I must say, well celebrated in the sense that tourism arrivals has increased more than 300
04:28percent.
04:29You see the establishment of arts and culture organizations have doubled.
04:34You see hotel rooms increasing more than 150 percent.
04:38So the data is very encouraging.
04:41And you can see that it flows back into the city because technically the state has more in their coffer
04:47and therefore more to reinvest back into the city.
04:50So there's more tax collection, I think, being done by the local council.
04:56And that same approach is also being done here.
04:59But we're in the business of making places sticky, right?
05:04How do you make sticky places?
05:07And it goes back to, you know, smaller nucleus interventions, one area at a time.
05:14And hence the same approach also is KL Festival.
05:18We are connecting 26 different areas in downtown KL.
05:23And downtown KL here means the historic core of the city.
05:27If you look at a broader area, it's a big area.
05:34There is a population of about 8 million versus Georgetown that has about 2.1 million.
05:40So we do have a bigger population to play with and pull in.
05:44And especially when you look at the current crisis that's happening around the world,
05:49we are having to double down to ensure that we are able to pull people back into the city.
05:56We are now looking at how do we attract more local domestic visitors in addition to attracting regional visitors.
06:04Because at the end of the day, it's perhaps a bit risky to travel elsewhere.
06:08So we want to come to places that are safe, that signal confidence, that signal that the city is open.
06:16And I think this plays in very well for KL as well.
06:23So making the coming in, leverage on the preservation and definitely making it sticky.
06:30It's not easy despite what's going on with the crisis around the world.
06:36And also talking about the KL Fest is framed as an economy intervention, not a cultural event.
06:42So what does that distinction mean, especially in practice?
06:48Well, I think to be fair, it's perhaps a hybrid event.
06:52Because at the end of the day, we like to escape to arts and we like to escape to culture
06:57because it makes us happy, it makes us reflect, it makes us think and ponder.
07:04And in some case studies that I've seen, the positioning of the city is that escape to the arts for
07:13just a moment
07:13so that we can forget about what's happening in our daily life, right?
07:17And I think KL Festival is able to offer that.
07:20So that is, I think, the cultural strategy where you feel happy and positive, you reflect.
07:26But there's also that economic design strategy behind it.
07:31But it's not an overnight result, right?
07:35That we have to build the foundation, build the momentum and also then reap in the benefits.
07:43So I think we have been very fortunate that under the leadership of the government Prime Minister, Dr. Siyah Anwar,
07:55we have been able to push the agenda of remaking Kuala Lumpur at a national level.
08:02And through that, the Ministry of Finance, Department of Federal Territories
08:06and with the support of Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, we were able to take a few steps ahead in moving
08:14KL Festival.
08:15And we are working with different partners, different local stakeholders and communities
08:21because at the end of the day, activating a city is not one entity alone that can do it.
08:28It involves everybody. It involves penjaja, it involves business owners, it involves artists.
08:37So it must actually activate the city meaningfully because otherwise also it won't be sustainable.
08:44So that at the end of the day, building a sense of ownership through the festival
08:49will actually also provide key social and economic benefits.
08:55And hence why we say that the festival is not purely a cultural strategy but also an economic intervention.
09:01And we know that these are the important elements that make the whole ecosystems better.
09:08And counting numbers of visitors are easy, but how do you isolate or measure the event impact from the border
09:15market trends?
09:16So I think for us, we are looking at three different levels.
09:22One, I think we're looking at how the city behaves when there's no interventions at all, right?
09:29So what does that mean? That means after office hours, is the street quiet?
09:34If not, if we do an intervention, will there be more people coming in?
09:38And therefore there is also additional incentive for business owners to keep their shops open after five o'clock.
09:45So there's comparative analysis there.
09:47We also look into ecosystem indicators.
09:50That means are more businesses getting more income?
09:57Are our creative industry businesses getting more jobs?
10:01So we look at that as well.
10:03And lastly, we also are collecting data to understand actually how else can we bring people back into the city?
10:12What would be the reasons to bring them back?
10:15Because at the end of the day, beyond hardware like you mentioned Nina,
10:19we also need to make sure that there is a connection.
10:22The people are connected to their city and to a place.
10:25And how do you do that? You do that through activation.
10:28You do that through placemaking.
10:31So software strategy is actually very key in designing a city and making it livable and making it lovable.
10:40And therefore through this three buckets, that's how we actually try and analyse the data
10:46and build a foundation for us to build a more rigorous way of looking into things.
10:50Connecting is very important.
10:51Coming there, connecting to the culture, to the arts, the meaning behind all of this infrastructure is very important.
10:57And you have also announced that 90% of events are free.
11:01Where does the economic return actually come from?
11:03Yeah, so now one of our, the guidance our Minister of Federal Territories had provided for is to ensure that
11:12the festival is accessible by everyday people.
11:17All levels of people, whether it's senior citizen, whether it's children.
11:22And hence why we've designed the festival that it is 10% ticketed, 90% free.
11:30By doing so, the whole idea is that we can bring more people back into the city and then that
11:37will benefit all the businesses that are happening around there.
11:43Not only that, the festival is not centered in one area sahaja.
11:49It's actually scattered across 26 different venues in heritage buildings, outside heritage buildings, in public spaces, in laneways.
11:58So places that you may not also necessarily expect.
12:02So economy penjaja, the people's economy is also right at the heart of it to ensure that we also have
12:09our pakcik, makcik who selling fruits that benefit from it.
12:14Not just your hoteliers and all.
12:17So that is where the economic, I think, impact comes.
12:21But also at the same time, it comes from people spending more time in the city.
12:27So if there's more reason for them to come back, the lingering or dwelling time is longer.
12:32It benefits all these different operators in our city.
12:37And also the projected economic value for KL of 7.85 billion ringgit is a significant claim.
12:44But it also has been said that a city that consistently activates its public space sends a signal to the
12:51investors.
12:52So can you share what type of investors and what kind of decision do they always make?
12:58So I think to maybe put some context, 7.85 billion is not a result of purely the festival.
13:04It is a result of a broader rejuvenation strategy that takes into account visit Malaysia year.
13:13So national policy, the Warisan KL, also another national rejuvenation project.
13:19In addition to the UNESCO Creative City of Design Strategy.
13:24So combining that in addition to all the hardware interventions, all the project developments,
13:30for example Merdeka 118 area that's being led by PNB Merdeka Ventures or the Rejuvenation of Dataran Merdeka Heritage Area
13:43that's being led by Kazanah National, Kuala Numpur City Hall, MBIS Lango and different stakeholders.
13:51All of that in addition to all the software activation contributes to this intended and desired state of 7.85
14:02billion.
14:03It is not possible because it has been achieved elsewhere overseas and also in nearby cities within Kuala Lumpur or
14:13within the Southeast Asia region.
14:15So it's not a not possible target, Nina.
14:21And sorry, I hope I answered your question.
14:24Yes, you shared a lot also.
14:26And basically, this is no longer just about festival.
14:29It's about whether culture can also can truly powers an economy.
14:33Again, I would say thank you very much to Izan Satrina, the Senior Director at ThinkCity for this valuable insight.
14:38And I hope to see you again.
14:41Thank you, Nina.
14:41All right.
14:42Definitely, all of our discussion here will be featured in astro.new.com across all social media platforms.
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