KLANG, SELANGOR — As 2025 draws to a close, Klang Royal City has emerged as a standout example of how sustainability initiatives can drive economic growth, improve quality of life and strengthen urban resilience.
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Aided by its designation as a royal city and the success of Visit Selangor Year 2025, Klang welcomed 642,557 tourists from January to September this year, surpassing its total visitor count from the entire previous year. The influx of visitors particularly from China (63,655), Singapore (15,725) and Indonesia (12,642) has helped invigorate local businesses and diversify the city’s economic base.
Under Mayor Datuk Abd Hamid Hussain’s leadership, Klang Royal City Council (MBDK) has embedded sustainability into city planning and services, with key achievements in 2025 including:
The Smart Selangor free bus service ferried nearly 300,000 passengers across seven routes, providing affordable and accessible transport for students and residents while helping to reduce private car usage.
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Klang Royal City Council (MBDK) also received the Sustainable City Award under the Malaysian Urban-Rural National Indicators Network for Sustainable Development (MURNINets), reflecting strong performance across key sustainability dimensions.
In addition, the city stepped up its recycling efforts, collecting approximately 524 tonnes of plastic waste for recycling and encouraging household source separation to improve material recovery.
A new plastic waste sorting facility along Sungai Klang, developed by The Ocean Cleanup in collaboration with Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd, J&K Wonderland Foundation and Coca-Cola Malaysia, aims to improve the separation of recyclable waste collected from the river.
Klang’s sustainability push has also focused on flood mitigation and green urban design, a crucial strategy for a city historically affected by heavy rainfall. MBDK has drafted a comprehensive flood prevention plan that includes drainage upgrades, new retention ponds, pump installations, and river cleaning under the “Cintai Sungai Klang” initiative. Early results were visible following Tropical Storm Senyar in November, with only limited flooding reported.
Complementing these efforts, the council transformed Taman Bandar DiRaja Klang into a biophilic garden, investing RM800,000 to integrate nature into the urban fabric. Biophilic design principles which blend natural elements with built environments help improve liveability, reduce heat stress and strengthen community connections to nature.
According to The Star news, in the first quarter of 2025, MBDK added 100 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to the existing number of 407 to combat illegal dumping. These were installed in hotspots such as back lanes, with footage used to improve enforcement and accountability. The CCTV cameras were rented for cost-effectiveness.
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