The importance of Malaysian Land Administration Domain Model country profile in land policy

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Every country has land policy and land planning systems to improve social, physical, spatial and economic imbalance. Land policies provide the framework, direction and continuity of decisions made for the function of land in the implementation of national development plans which involve local, state and regional plans. In Malaysia, land policies are implemented within a broader framework, which is supervised by the government. Some land policies were implemented based on the National Land Code (NLC). The National Land Code, 1965 came into force on 1st January 1966 to administer all land matters in Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan while Sabah and Sarawak continued to use the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930 and Sarawak Land Code 1958 respectively. The purpose of the NLC is to ensure the uniformity of land policy and land law with respect to land tenure, registration, transfer, charges, leases, easements and other interests and rights to land. Rapid development and various needs for securing proprietors’ interests have put a lot of demands on land administration. A new three-dimensional (3D) cadastral system was proposed to cater for above and below surface cadastral objects and to enable the registration of real properties that are not limited to the land surface. The 3D approach for cadastral and land registration systems can provide a better means to manage modern cadastral objects. There are two organisations within Peninsular Malaysia responsible for managing and maintaining the land administration system, namely, the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (DSMM) and the District Land Offices which are responsible for the cadastral survey and ownership rights respectively. Both organisations have their own information systems called eLand in District Land Offices and eCadastre in DSMM. There are three arguments to further improve the land administration system towards e-Government services – government guarantee of indefeasibility of title to private land; information integration for good governance of land administration; systematic and accurate recording for land taxation purposes as a source of important state revenue. Those arguments clearly demonstrated the need for the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM). The LADM is an international standard for land administration purposes. Malaysia does not have a standard model for land administration. Standardisation of land administration within a country should meet the international standard, this will hasten land transactions between international entities. This paper attempts to outline Malaysian land policy in relation to the framework of the National Land Policy and LADM standard as a reference model for Malaysian land administration.