Brunei National Land Use Council


Brunei establishes National Land Use Council
Borneo Bulletin, September 15, 2016
James Kon

HIS Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam has recently consented to the establishment of the National Land Use Council, which will be chaired by the Minister of Development and the members will include relevant ministers and permanent secretaries.

The announcement was made yesterday by Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Bahrin bin Abdullah, the Minister of Development, in a statement which was read out by Dato Paduka Eddie bin Dato Paduka Haji Sunny, the Permanent Secretary (Technical and Professional) at the Ministry of Development, during a dinner held in conjunction with the annual general meeting of the Institution of Surveyors, Engineers and Architects (PUJA).

One area that the council will be looking at, the minister said, “is plot ratio, to address at least two main inter-linked aims. First, limited availability of land suitable for development means it is important that we allow high-density development in appropriate zones to accommodate our present and future needs.

“Secondly, one of our national key performance indicators (KPI) going towards 2035 has increased in gross fixed capital formation. We need more investments. Again, with limited land, the only way this will be possible is by allowing higher density development, which may also make better commercial and financial sense for investors.”

Outlining some of the recent initiatives to attract more investment, the minister also touched on the topic of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in dealing with construction permits.

He said, “In the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’, we ranked 21 out of 189 economies in dealing with construction permits. The rank was based on the fact that we had 14 procedures and took 119 days to issue various approvals.”

The Authority for Building Control and Construction Industry (ABCi), he said, “has worked hard to improve the process further, and we informed World Bank officials who visited us in May, that we now had five procedures and took 37 days. Continuous monitoring has shown that since March this year, we have managed on weekly average, to meet our target dates for issuing approvals.”

The improvement, he said, “was possible, because ABCi worked together with some members of PUJA.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brunei Royal Wedding 2015: Profile of Royal Bride Dayangku Raabi'atul Adawiyyah

Image
DAYANGKU RAABI'ATUL ADAWIYYAH BINTI PENGIRAN HAJI BOLKIAH Yang Mulia Dayangku Raabi'atul `Adawiyyah binti Pengiran Haji Bolkiah was born on the 27th October 1992. She is the second child of Pengiran Haji Bolkiah bin Pengiran Haji Jaluddin bin Pengiran Haji Tajuddin with Pengiran Hajah Noor'aismah binti Pengiran Haji Ismail bin Pengiran Haji Tengah. Her eldest brother, Awangku Abd. 'Aziz Hafizuddin bin Pengiran Haji Bolkiah, works at the Royal Brunei Airlines. Her other siblings are Awangku Mohd Ainul Yaqien; Dayangku Noor Batuul 'Afiqah; Dayangku Izzatul `Afifah; Dayangku Duratul Majeedah; Dayangku Nur Hidayatul Maheerah; Awangku Mohd Zainul ‘Ariffin; Awangku Mohd Irfan Hakeem; and Awangku Mohd Izzul Yamin @ Abdul Razeeq. (Note: Direct descendants of the Brunei Sultans carry the hereditary title of Pengiran. However as children and young adults, they are normally styled Awangku (for male) and Dayangku (for female) until they marry, when the title conver
Read more

Family Titles in Brunei

Image
On my recent blog on Brunei's Time Line , one commentator got carried away and she started to talk about events in the past before moving on to nicknames. I enjoyed what she wrote and I offered for her to write a whole blog about it and I will put it up. But up to now, I have not received anything from her. So, Hajah Yati, if you are reading, my offer still stands. And for the rest of you readers out there, if you don't have your own blogsite, I am most ready to offer my site for the occassional blogs that you want to write - just make sure the blogs are Brunei related. You can set up your own blogsite once you feel comfortable. As someone later on commented, it will be nice to read someone else's blogs too on this website. At least on this one, you get an instant 300+ readers a day. So, please, my e-mail is admin@bruneiresources.com. Do write. I don't have much on nicknames to write on as suggested by Hajah Yati. I remembered when I was at school (primary), I have fri
Read more

Pulau Cermin - Brunei's Historic Island

Image
Since I was already on the water visiting the Jong Batu at one end of the Brunei River, I thought I might as well go to the other end and visit the other historical site of Brunei, Pulau Cermin. Pulau Cermin as many Brunei historians know it is the site of the temporary palace of Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin, the 13th Sultan of Brunei and is the site of the only civil war in Brunei History. Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin took the throne after assasinating Sultan Muhammad Ali. It was quite a bloody time in Brunei history and I remembered one classic book written by Yura Halim entitled "Mahkota Berdarah" regarding the episode. Pulau Cermin - view from the River In a nutshell, Sultan Abdul Hakkul Mubin was the Bendahara when his son was killed by the son of Sultan Muhammad Ali. He requested that his son's death be avenged but Sultan Muhammad Ali denied him. So Bendahara Abdul Mubin went amok killing a few people at the palace and with his followers took the Sultan and killed him (No
Read more