World Town Planning Day (WTPD) is celebrated every November 8 in over 30 countries, including Brunei Darussalam, to honour the role of town planners in creating sustainable and livable spaces for communities.
Doa Selamat and Asar prayer will be held at the Ministry of Development today to mark this year’s WTPD.
This year’s theme ‘Learn Globally, Apply Locally’ focuses on the value of learning from global planning practices and fostering innovative solutions to better adapt locally in addressing challenges for the pursuit of sustainable development.
Since its establishment in 1972, the Department for Town and Country Planning has played an important role in land-use planning and driving development. Today, global climate change is a formidable challenge that places urban planning at the forefront of mitigation and adaptation strategies to ensure land-use decisions to be aligned with the principles of sustainability and resilience. The scarcity of resources poses further challenges, requiring efficient land use optimisation strategy to accommodate diverse and competing land use requirements of various sectors. In prioritising sustainability and resilience, the department has worked to improve the use of spaces by promoting the concept of ‘inclusive connectivity’ and exploring better use of functional spaces towards ‘people-centric’ based development through review of land use planning policies and development guidelines.
There is also an ongoing effort to strengthen international cooperation to build the capacity of the department by learning most recent strategies and technical competencies, including efforts to leverage on technology and planners’ capacity in making a positive impact on improving quality of life.
Additionally, enhancing partnerships and promoting community inclusivity are established through continuous engagement programmes and activities such as dialogues and forums aiming for a deeper understanding of local development issue and community needs in creating sustainable strategies together.
