KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Putrajaya has launched a RM500 million Public Transport Fund to be managed by Bank Pembangunan Malaysia.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said at the launch today that he hoped to encourage an increase in the use of public transportation among Malaysians by financing the system’s improvement.“The funding may be used to purchase vehicles like taxi, bus or other types of public transport vehicles, and can be utilised by the operators, suppliers, manufacturers, assemblers of public transport vehicles and contractors, as well as developers of these infrastructure.

“In addition, a 2 per cent financing rate subsidy will be given to the successful applicants,” said Lim.The Bagan MP took note that the government’s initiatives to support and provide incentives for strategic sectors such as public transportation may not be commercially attractive to ordinary investors.However, he argued that these sectors have the potential to trigger an exponential multiplier effect on the nation’s growing economy while improving the lives of the average Malaysian.

Lim made an observation that transport is the second biggest expense item after housing and that many Malaysian households own more than one car — some due to necessity as high housing costs near city centres have pushed many lower income groups to neighbourhoods with little connectivity to public transportation.

This places an extra burden on their already weak finances.“It should come as no surprise to us that according to a Nielsen survey in 2014, 93 per cent of Malaysian households owned at least one car, which ranks Malaysian households the third highest globally.“Meanwhile, the modal share for public transport for Kuala Lumpur, our capital city with the most developed public transportation infrastructure, stands at around 20 per cent, compared to 36 per cent in Jakarta, 30 per cent in Bangkok and 67 per cent in Singapore.

“A World Bank report also showed that transport costs are 50 per cent higher in Kuala Lumpur compared to Hong Kong or Tokyo,” he said.

Another World Bank report also showed that residents of Greater Kuala Lumpur spend more than 250 million hours a year stuck in traffic which is around 20 days per person, unlike rural and intercity transportation which performed better.

Modal share is the percentage of travellers using a particular type of transportation or number of trips using said type.