February 1 is a gazetted public holiday for the folks of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya to celebrate the formation of the Federal Territories. Federal Territory Day, or Hari Wilayah Persekutuan, marks the formation of KL as a Federal Territory more than forty years ago.
When Sabah and Sarawak joined, and Malaysia formed in 1963, KL was still part of Selangor. The Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Agreement made KL the first federal territory under the control of the federal government in 1974.
In 1984, Labuan, of the coast of Sabah in East Malaysia, was made the second federal territory when the government of Sabah handed the island over to the federal government. Labuan relies on its oil and gas resources and international financial services. In 1990, it was declared an International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC) to complement KL’s business sector and strengthen the contribution of financial services to the GNP, improving the development of its neighbouring islands.
KL’s need to function as a full-fledged economic hub paved the way for the development of Putrajaya – an area within Sepang in Selangor, and took Malaysia’s administration from KL in 1999. Putrajaya was later declared the third federal territory of the country in 2001. All ministries were relocated into this newly structured district and succeeded for executive purposes, having the central international airport, KLIA, only 20 minutes away. Putrajaya is a planned garden city where 38% of area is green spaces with a network of open spaces and wide boulevards.
Benefitting from being under centralized purview, the federal territories are home to a total of about 2million people (KL – 1.8mil, Labuan – 97,000, Putrajaya – 89,000), and are seeing immense growth both in infrastructure and liveability. Aspiring to be one of the top 20 most liveable cities in the world, KL was ranked number 70 in the EIU’s Global Liveability Ranking in 2014. With the purpose of creating a global economic hub, work is in full-swing to develop TRX, a sustainable international financial district within the country’s first Federal Territory.
