By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, Nov 1: The first phase of construction to convert a 10,000 square feet-space inside Myy Mall Lutong into a Miri City Community Library will begin this year.
The first phase involves an estimated budget of RM500,000, disclosed Miri mayor Adam Yii today at the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing between Miri City Counvil (MCC) Lutong Community Library Committee Taskforce and Warisan Teamwork Sdn Bhd, the management of Myy Mall Lutong.
The idea was to relocate the Lutong Library inside Myy Mall Lutong to help reboot the surrounding area and economic activities, Yii revealed.
“The relocation of Lutong Library to the new premises at Myy Mall here will give the best opportunity to MCC to rebrand our library with new concept of a community library,” he said.
This, he added, was also a method to approach and get close to the local community for the development and well-being of the rakyat.
“The proposed MCC Lutong Community Library is an entirely new setup which follows the Miri Smart City concept closely with emphasis on public participation in digital technology,” he pointed out.
YIi described the relocation plans as timely with Shell Malaysia and Petronas Carigali set to move their upstream divisions to Miri.
“So with this development, we hope Miri and Lutong’s economy will be better in the near future,” he said.
Meanwhile MCC Lutong Community Library Committee Taskforce chairman Cr Julaihi Mohamad who is also the MCC deputy mayor, said the project would enable people at the surrounding areas to have better access to book collections and good facilities.
He added the new premises would have a more modern design compared to the current building which is isolated and outdated near Lutong Bazaar.
The current building housing the Lutong Library has been in existence for the past 40 years.
“with the new site inside Myy Mall Lutong, we will be able to store about 50,000 book collections, five times more than what we have at the old library,” he said during the MOA signing ceremony today.
The relocation would be carried out in two phases.
“We hope (it would take) around two years at most to fully setup Lutong Library in Myy Mall,” he said.
With the MOA sealed today, the new MCC Community library will be housed in the new location for the next 30 years.
Also present at the MOA were Warisan Teamworks Sdn Bhd managing director Kong Hee Tiing, MCC secretary Morshidi Frederick and MCC legal counsel Cindy Ann Robert. — DayakDaily
