Brunei - Poverty 'threat' to human security, dignity

His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, pressed on the urgent need for a well-coordinated strategy on eradicating poverty to break the poverty cycle in Asean, as well as worldwide.

In his sabda at the opening of the 7th Asean Ministerial Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (7th AMMRDPE) on Wednesday, His Royal Highness highlighted the dangers poverty brings to national development.

"Poverty is indeed a threat to human security and dignity. It hinders the development of an economy, reduces the stability of society and adversely affects the peace and security of a country," HRH said.

Pointing out the theme of the meeting, "A Coordinated Strategy of Intervention: Towards Zero Poverty", the Crown Prince called for cooperation among Asean members to tackle poverty issues in order to eradicate it in the long run. "Our aim should not only be to provide immediate relief and assistance to the poor when the need arises, but also to make them in the long term more resilient, resourceful and self-supporting, which will contribute to breaking the vicious circle of poverty."

Touching on tragic events such as the flooding brought about by climate change in the region, HRH said the challenges to overcome are numerous and complex, and would require Asean to have closer multi-sectoral coordination in rural development.

"Asean can only prosper through a well-coordinated strategy to develop rural areas and overcome poverty," HRH said.

Efforts to eradicate poverty would not succeed if society solely depend on the governments, HRH added, and urged all sectors to take part in the effort to tackle the pressing issue faced worldwide.

The Crown Prince particularly encouraged business communities to practise their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and support and assistance should be obtained from dialogue partners to collectively overcome the issue.

"A more positive example of why we need to work together is the recent proposal to promote volunteerism amongst our youth. If this is done properly, the involvement of our young professionals in rural development will almost certainly bring about positive developments. A good balance must also co-exist between the immediate need to alleviate poverty and the long-term efforts to assist the poor in permanently breaking free of the debilitating cycle of poverty," he said.

"Poverty is largely widespread in rural areas, and therefore promoting rural development goes a long way in addressing many of the multi-faceted challenges of overcoming poverty," HRH said, adding that several works such as the Asean Framework Action Plan on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication have been undertaken as a key strategic plan to address poverty in the Asean region.

The Crown Prince further said poverty is an issue that is taken very seriously in the national agenda, and His Majesty has set "zero poverty" as a high priority national goal.

In this regard, a Special Inter-Ministerial Committee on Poverty has been established with its first task to conduct a study on poverty in Brunei, which was completed this year.

HRH also outlined the social net programmes available in Brunei to alleviate poverty issues such as the social welfare and socio-economic programmes and the new Supplemental Contributory Pension scheme, which was established to strengthen the existing Employees' Trust Fund (TAP) to prevent individuals from falling into poverty upon retirement.

The social welfare programmes are aimed at providing immediate welfare assistance in the form of cash and in-kind for the needy, while the socio-economic development programmes are designed to look into long-term objectives which includes assistance in education, health care and housing. With the programmes and initiatives, HRH expressed his optimism that the development gap within Asean countries will decrease significantly, bringing the Asean community closer to becoming a well-developed community.

"Our efforts to improve coordination and collaboration to eradicate poverty whilst narrowing the development gap within Asean will contribute significantly to realising the goal of an Asean community that enjoys peace, stability and prosperity throughout the region."

Low Leng May and Rabiatul Kamit

The Brunei Times

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