Bahrain invests BD3.3 billion in social housing sector

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The government initiatives and investments in the social housing sector is valued at BD3.3 billion Bahraini dinars, Housing Minister said yesterday. This information came as Housing Minister Basem Al Hamer spoke at the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held at the UN Headquarters in New York. In his speech, the minister indicated that the royal directive of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to provide 40,000 housing units, and its implementation by the government under the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa , the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The Minister of Housing reviewed the most prominent results of the implementation of the new urban plan and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals contained in the second voluntary report on the implementation of the new urban plan submitted by Bahrain in November 2021. He highlighted that the esteemed government launched financial packages worth more than 4.5 billion Bahraini dinars to support the economy.

Mr Al Hamer added that Bahrain, since its initiation to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, has achieved many gains, including being ranked 42nd out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index in 2020, and its classification among the countries with “extremely high human development”, as well as reaching the percentage of the population who They live below the international poverty line at the national urban level by zero per cent, and the average Bahraini family income has increased by 47pc between 2008 and 2016.

Mr Al Hamer also referred to the great efforts made by the government to cover potable water networks and the proportion of the population connected to the sewage network by 100pc, and its efforts to increase the proportion of women’s contribution to the workforce to reach 42.8pc in 2020, stressing the increase in Bahraini women’s contributions as a result of Tamkeen’s efforts women occupy various public, educational, executive, specialised, judicial, and diplomatic positions. 

The gains of implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals also included many areas, taking into account balance and equality among all groups of society, as legislation, laws and regulations worked to enhance opportunities and provide them to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, social or gender, in addition to increasing the participation of all groups Society is one of the opportunities available in the field of entrepreneurship, improving income distribution among different social groups, improving quality of life, and providing social security.

Bahrain has also been keen to launch innovative initiatives to encourage and support young people through quality training and educational programs. The minister also stressed that in terms of infrastructure, the government’s efforts have been crowned with success in providing decent and affordable housing for all segments of society, establishing a high-quality road network, with easy access to all basic services, in addition to Bahrain’s undertaking of outstanding efforts in the field of increasing the use of clean energy.

And renewable and dealing with climate change early through a number of actions and measures. The Minister of Housing pointed out that the government is currently working on establishing a “national urban observatory” in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program, to be a center for urban data and to calculate its various indicators, so that the observatory contributes to accelerating the monitoring process, measuring performance and following up on policies and programmes. 

Mr Al Hamer expressed Bahrain's pride in being one of the leading countries in the commitment to implement the UN goals for sustainable development, as Bahrain ranks first in the Gulf and fourth in the Arab world in presenting the national report on “the progress made in implementing the new urban plan”, which made Bahrain one of the distinguished countries to be emulated. In the submission of voluntary national reports on urban plans. He added that the plan for implementing the sustainable goals involves all official agencies, in cooperation with the private sector and civil society, in implementing a series of procedures, plans and programs to achieve the sustainable development goals, including the eleventh goal, which stipulates making cities and human settlements inclusive of all, safe, resilient and sustainable.

The minister also affirmed Bahrain’s keenness to cooperate and achieve strategic partnership with the United Nations Program to enhance efforts aimed at implementing the new urban plan and development goals, foremost of which is working to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable, in the context of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s membership in the Executive Board of the United Nations Settlements Program Humanity “UN-Habitat”, and in line with the national policies of Bahrain's, Agenda 2030.