By Peh Shing Huei, Assistant Foreign Editor

IN JUST two hours, Singaporeans can reach a town in Malaysia that now shares the same status as the Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty.

Malacca city, along with George Town in Penang, made it to the United Nations' World Heritage List this week, catapulting into the realm of world wonders.

Officials and residents in these two places are already toting up the economic benefits to be gained from snagging what has been billed as the Oscars of the environment.

'The inscription will bring in millions of tourists, including conservation and heritage experts, and this will bring economic benefits to the people and the tourism industry,' Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam told The Star newspaper.

He is aiming for eight million tourists a year by 2010, up from the current six million.

Property agents also believe that houses in the heritage zones will jump in value by at least 30 per cent.

Malaysian conservationists tout the listing of the colonial cities - cited for 'their unique architectural and cultural townscapes without parallel anywhere in East and South-east Asia' on the Unesco website - as a victory for their efforts.

'George Town has been very commercialised in the last decade. Some people are very upset with the pace of development, removing what they call the 'old spiritual city',' said Malaysian history scholar Mark Emmanuel of the National University of Singapore.

'This inscription will give the conservationists more clout when they argue against building another mall.'

A place on the heritage list confers on a site the status of being one of the world's natural or human-made wonders in the greatest need of protection. This gives them access to international protection and funds.

The mountainside Buddha statues in Afghanistan, for example, which were destroyed by the militant Taleban, have received more than US$4 million (S$5.4 million) since being cited by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2003.

On the flip side, the honour also brings armies of trampling tourists who ironically could destroy the very places that their dollars are supposed to help preserve.

Sites such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean all saw an invasion of tourists after getting on the list.

The Galapagos then earned a place on the UN's other, and less desired, list - the List of World Heritage in Danger - last year.

Still, there is no shortage of candidates eager to win the heritage Oscars and join the current list of 878.

Despite the arduous selection process - Malacca and George Town took seven years - France, for example, is preparing a bid for its cuisine next year. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called it 'the best gastronomy in the world' and France wants it to be recognised as an 'intangible' cultural treasure.

Even Singapore has its lobbyists for the heritage list.

Singapore Heritage Society president Kevin Tan has spoken of submitting the Tiong Bahru housing estate, which is one of Singapore's earliest public housing projects, built between the 1930s and 1950s.

And Member of Parliament Irene Ng asked last year for the Esplanade-Empress Place arts and heritage precinct to be put forward for consideration.

'The government should take up this suggestion seriously, if it hasn't before. I'm not sure what we are waiting for. I think it will be a shame if we lag behind in terms of being recognised as a global arts city with a unique heritage,' she told The Straits Times yesterday.

'The other area which can be put forward is Chek Jawa. It teems with wild marine life and is a unique collection of six distinct habitats - coastal forest, mangroves, sand bars, seagrass lagoon, rocky shore and coral rubble.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 12, 2008.

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Winning ways

Malacca and George Town

Historic cities on the shore of the Strait of Malacca dating back over 500 years. The Malaysian pair were chosen as a joint-entry, with both demonstrating influences from Asia and Europe.

Malacca reflects the Portuguese and Dutch periods beginning in the early 16th century while George Town represents the British era from the end of the 18th century.

Alps' Rhaetian Railway

A major technological and architectural feat in 1904, passing through 55 tunnels and covered galleries, and crossing 196 viaducts and bridges in the Alpine mountain towns and landscape.

It overcame the isolation of settlements in the Central Alps early in the 20th century.

Al-Hijr Archaeological Site

It is the largest conserved site of the Nabataean civilisation south of Jordan's Petra. The rock-hewn wonder in Saudi Arabia features tombs with decorated facades dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD.

Fujian Tulou

The tulou, or 'earth buildings', were built from the 12th to the 20th centuries in China's southern Fujian province.

Designed for defence purposes, each house can accommodate 800 people, often an entire clan.

The site is also known as 'a little kingdom for the family' or 'bustling small city'.

Berlin Modernism Housing Estates

Six housing estates showcasing innovative housing policies for those on low incomes from 1910 to 1933. All apartments were clean and affordable, with high ceilings, parquet floors, a separate bathroom and kitchen, and a balcony, at a time when many lived in dark, unhygienic and tiny apartments.