KUCHING: Malaysia once again achieved global recognition with the listing of the Niah National Park Caves Complex in Sarawak as a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.
Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MOTAC) Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan said the recognition was announced by UNESCO on July 27 at 4.30pm local time.
With the recognition of Niah National Park Caves Complex as a world heritage site, Khairul said Malaysia now proudly boasts a total of six UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
“Malaysia once again achieved global recognition with the listing of the Niah National Park Caves Complex in Sarawak as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” he said.
“These include Gunung Mulu National Park, Kinabalu Park, the Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca (Melaka and George Town), and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.
“With that, surely, Visit Malaysia 2026 is going to be truly spectacular,” he said.
He said this during the opening ceremony of the inaugural 2024 Lion Dance Festival at Kuching Waterfront last night (July 27).
The Niah National Park Caves Complex is a site known where the oldest human remains were discovered in Southeast Asia and it has multiple caves with impressive and archeological sites.
While the surrounding area has dense primary rainforest which is home to many species of plants and wildlife.
The park has a size of 3,138 hectares of forest and limestone karst areas. It was first gazetted as a National Historic Monument in 1958 and on Nov, 23 1974 was gazetted as National Park and opened to the public on Jan 1, 1975.
Earlier, MOTAC in a statement said that the recognition of Niah National Park Caves Complex as a world heritage site was awarded during the 46th World Heritage Committee Session, which was held in New Delhi, India from July 21 to 31.
“This prestigious recognition was decided by 21 member states of the World Heritage Committee, chaired by India’s representative,” the statement read.
The Ministry said the nomination process for the Niah National Park Caves Complex began in 2019, with the Tentative List document submitted to UNESCO on Jan 22, 2021, and on Jan 31, 2023, the nomination document was hand-delivered to the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris, France.
“Malaysia is also working to nominate several more sites as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the future, including the FRIM Forest Park in Selangor, Royal Belum State Park, and the National Leprosy Control Centre,” said MOTAC.
To date, a total of 1,199 sites worldwide have been recognised as World Heritage Sites under the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
