A number of achievements over the years have brought the country closer to meeting its goals for Brunei Vision 2035, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah said during the 20th session of the Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting yesterday.
For Goal 1 on producing highly skilled, educated and accomplished people, the minister said the country’s scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is one of the indicators to measure its progress.
The minister said scores for mathematics has improved by 12 points to 442, reading by 21 to 429 and science by 15 to 446. The nation is in top three in Asean in all domains, he said.
For Goal 2 – high quality of life comparable with major nations – progress is measured using the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Programme. With a score of 0.829 in 2021, Brunei Darussalam is ranked 51st out of 191 countries in the HDI, said the minister.
He added that while comparing progress with other nations is a good practice, it is best not to become too fixated with places on an index and ignore true progress.
For Goal 3 on having a dynamic and sustainable economy, the minister noted growth in the non-oil-and-gas sector at over four per cent for seven consecutive years. Unemployment has also dropped from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to 5.2 per cent in 2022, which shows that the rate of unemployment has decreased over the years, he added. – Azlan Othman
