| James Kon |
THE Ministry of Development (MoD) launched its Policy Framework 2018-2023 and Strategic Plan 2018-2023 booklets in an event at the ministry’s headquarters in Berakas yesterday.
Officiating as the guest of honour was Minister of Development Dato Seri Paduka Awang Haji Suhaimi bin Haji Gafar.
Others present included Permanent Secretary (Technical and Professional) at the MoD Haji Marzuke bin Haji Mohsin; Acting Permanent Secretary (Administration and Finance) at the MoD Dr Nor Imtihan binti Haji Abdul Razak; Director-General of Public Works Haji Amer Hishamuddin bin Pehin Orang Kaya Amar Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Haji Zakaria; as well as directors and heads of departments under the MoD.
The booklets are meant to provide a clearer picture of the ministry’s national development plans and goals for the next five years.
The Policy Framework 2018-2023 booklet provides a crisp breakdown of the ministry’s priority areas across nine sectors, namely the provision of housing, road infrastructure, water supply services, provision of drainage, provision of sewerage, clean and sustainable environment, optimal land use, facilitating construction industry development and infrastructure financing.
The Strategic Plan 2018–2023 booklet, meanwhile, contains the ministry’s guidelines and directions for projects which will be implemented under the priorities and requirements of the ministry’s management.
In his speech, the minister highlighted several core areas that are of prime importance to the ministry in the next five years.
Among these was bringing about sustainable housing and its management.
He said, “To ensure sustainable national housing scheme (RPN) plans to achieve 85 per cent home ownership for Brunei citizens by 2035 requires considerable subsidisation of housing costs and expenditure. The ministry has already identified some of the approaches and policy revisions that need to be implemented to support private-public partnership (PPP) initiatives to ensure affordability, which give home ownership priority to those who truly need a house in order to achieve inclusive development and effective cost management.”
For optimising the use of land, the minister explained, “To balance the needs of our country’s socio-economic development, where land available for development is very limited, the core priority of the ministry is to ensure optimisation of land use and planning. Therefore, the land use policies need to be in line with promoting integrated development, improving investment in real estate so as to develop the economy to its full potential, as well as addressing policy gaps and strengthening land development law enforcement in a more effective way.”
Touching on the provision of infrastructure, the minister said, “The cost of infrastructure provision and construction as well as the maintenance of infrastructure assets is increasing year-on-year. The ministry’s policy is to carry out control and effective cost savings through integrated infrastructure development and integrated maintenance management.”
With regards to sustainable environmental planning and management, he said, “Relating to the issue of environment, the ministry is strengthening legislation and enforcement of the Environmental Protection and Management Order as a whole. To address this, we will be updating existing policies and legislation to facilitate more effective and more integrated enforcement of the laws together with other enforcement agencies.”
The minister, elaborating on what the ministry is seeking to achieve from the Strategic Plan 2018-2023, added, “We are looking to generate and improve financial management from services including the collection of revenue and arrears, corporatisation or partial privatisation of certain services or parts of services under the ministry and departments under it, enhance efficiency and optimisation of human resources as well as assets of the ministry, strengthen the management and sharing of data more effectively for use in evidence-based policymaking, as well as upgrading technology in the delivery of services to effectuate more efficient customer service.”
He said, “I fully hope the booklets can provide better guidance and understanding on the ministry’s policies to all our staff. To improve understanding, briefings on the subject will continuously be held by the ministry’s Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning (PCSP) division.
“I would like to thank the Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS) as well for contributing to the content of the Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2018-2023 booklets.”
The minister distributed the Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2018-2023 booklets to the heads of departments and divisions under the ministry who attended the event.