On 14 July 2026, the Geotechnical Engineering Technical Division of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia held a one-day seminar at the Armada Hotel in Petaling Jaya, titled "Ground Resilience & Regulatory Mastery: Navigating Klang Valley's Geotechnical Challenges and Submission Standards". Dato' Ir Ts Hj Mohd Taufik bin Haron, Chief Executive Officer of Ikram Works Sdn Bhd, presented a paper titled "Safeguard Hilly Developments: Integrating Technical Rigor into the Regulatory Approval Process".
He began with why slopes fail. In his account the causes are usually avoidable ones: site investigation too thin for the ground conditions, drainage that cannot cope with what reaches it, enforcement that stops at the paperwork, and maintenance that is never carried out. As hillside development spreads across Malaysia, that list sets the standard a submission should be judged against.
The presentation then set out what rigour looks like in practice. Geological mapping, borehole work, geophysical survey and laboratory testing were treated as one connected picture of the ground, feeding the slope stability analysis and the Factor of Safety that an approval turns on. Coordination between the disciplines working on a site was presented as part of the engineering rather than an administrative step alongside it.
Beyond design, the paper made the case for Building Information Modelling used together with geographic information systems and sensor based monitoring, so that a slope can be coordinated during approval and then watched over its service life. The closing argument was a change of posture: away from doing what compliance requires, towards decisions the evidence supports.
Ikram Works sits in Protasco's engineering and consultancy division, where geotechnical assessment and slope work are routine. The seminar was convened by the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, and Ikram Works took part as one of the presenters.