Nairobi, June 6 (BNA): Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, Amna bint Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, stressed the Kingdom of Bahrain’s efforts to achieve sustainability in the housing sector.
She highlighted the ministry’s role in leading programs in partnership with the private sector, citing the housing financing program, and the government program for the development of land rights, which aims to ensure that citizens have immediate access to housing service without waiting periods.
In his speech before the second session of UN-Habitat, which will be held from June 5 to 9 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Al-Rumaihi indicated that the government gives full priority to providing adequate housing for citizens through innovative and optimal programs and initiatives.
She said, “These initiatives are based on extensive studies that take into account the challenges facing the housing sector,” citing mainly demographic growth, an increase in the number of applications, and the need to improve the budget allocated to the social housing sector.
She indicated that the housing financing program, which raised the ceiling for the maximum and minimum financing value, attracted more than 7,000 applicants to benefit from financing within only 10 months.
“The ministry has already been able to fulfill 60% of those requests, which is a record number, in light of the high number of housing requests in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” she said.
Al-Rumaihi highlighted the government land development rights program, which aims to build thousands of housing units by real estate developers on state-owned lands.
She said that the ministry has already completed the pilot phase of this scheme through the Al-Lawzi project, which includes 132 housing units, which will be marketed during the next few days to citizens.
She indicated that the ministry has drawn up a long-term plan to expand projects, based on residential cities, in addition to a number of regions in various governorates.
The Minister highlighted Bahrain’s progress in implementing Goal 11 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which states to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
Bahrain has focused its efforts over the past years on developing five residential cities, namely Salman City, Khalifa City, East Hidd City and East Sitra City, in addition to the Ramli Housing Scheme.
She said that these cities represent the main pillars for implementing the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to provide 40,000 housing services for citizens, a directive whose completion was announced last year.
The minister affirmed that the Kingdom of Bahrain is fully committed to implementing the eleventh goal of sustainable development through government plans and programmes.
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