| Hakim Hayat |
TWO Bruneians recently had the opportunity to discuss with their regional counterparts issues surrounding increasing urban growth and challenges during an urban planning workshop organised by the United States Government’s signature programme, the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), held in Singapore.
The five-day workshop brought together 60 young leaders aged 20-35 years from all 10 Asean member countries and engaged the participants – through panel discussions, speakers, site visits and group projects – on a range of issues surrounding urbanisation and also how planning can help address them.
The programme covered opportunities and challenges, not only in terms of configuring the physical environment (natural and man-made), but also policy, governance as well as economic considerations when dealing with issues of culture and heritage, industry and tourism, infrastructure and social developments.
It also exposed the participants to solutions used in Singapore and elsewhere, and inspired them to find ways to adapt and apply these in their home countries, using governance and policy, social innovations, cross-sector partnerships and technology.
At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to begin the process of implementing projects and share the lessons they learnt with their colleagues in government, business, and other civic/institutional groups, such as community organisations, non-profits and schools.
With a keen interest in balancing the environment and developments towards a more resilient city, Masridah binti Mahmud, who has been working with the Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Department for two years, shared with the Weekend Bulletin in an interview yesterday that the workshop had enabled her to learn more from her counterparts as well as the different and unique issues that they face and how to solve them.
“The transfer of skills and learning materials that we were exposed to during the workshop can actually be incorporated into our current scopes of work and also help us to begin one of our outreach programmes under the department and to work more closely with the community in the future in urban planning,” she said.
Another participant of the workshop, Siti Nor Nazatul Saifa Fathrine binti Haji Md Rosellan, an officer at the Department of Town and Country Planning who is keen to be updated with the ‘Smart Cities Urban Growth’ initiatives, shared that the workshop has given her deeper insights and different perspectives on each countries’ needs, especially in land management and planning.
“We went to several exhibitions on urban planning and from there I was very impressed with the way they presented their plans interactively (such as simulation of housing schemes) to the community, so that they will better understand, instead of just reading from reports,” she said.
“I hope one day we can emulate this kind of exhibitions here as well.”
Masridah during one of her presentations elaborated on the Bandar Seri Begawan Master Plan, while Siti Nor Nazatul Saifa Fatherine talked more about the housing schemes available in Brunei.
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