Housing a priority in Govt’s development effort

A multi-faceted programme has been launched by the Government to address the problem of housing and has pledged to empower citizens to become land and home owners, so said R.M. Abeyratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Housing & Construction who led the Sri Lankan delegation for the Bureau meeting of Asian Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently (8 February 2018). L. S. Palansuriya, Chairman of National Housing Development Authority and Dr. Jagath Munasinghe, Chairman of the Urban Development Authority participated, as the Sri Lankan delegation. Cabinet Ministers, State Ministers, Secretaries to the Ministries, senior officials and representatives of international organizations participated chaired by Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State of Housing and Urban Affairs in India.

“President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe launched a multi – faceted programme of development, identifying housing and management of urban growth as key areas. Housing has been elevated as one of the highest priorities of the government’s development effort and pledged to empower citizens become land and home owners”, so said Abeyratne.

At this meeting Abeyratne further said, ” The Asian Pacific region is going through a very bright era of economic growth. With 60% of humanity, this region has vast human resources promising future potential for growth and development”, Abeyratne added.
However, the Asia Pacific Region is faced with critical challenges with regard to sustainable urbanization. Poverty, rapid growth of informal settlements and inadequate basic amenities, natural disaster and climate change are some of them, he noted.
Sri Lanka as a member of APMCHUD continues the support and adhere the APMCHUD principals as far as possible in planning and implementing housing and urban development programmes in our country.

At present, a major initiative taken by Sri Lanka is revising the National Housing Policy in the year 2017, in collaboration with the UN Habitat, in keeping with the guidelines of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal No. 11.

As large-scale housing and urban development programmes are envisaged in the urban development programmes of Sri Lanka, this policy focus have been placed for additional investment in the improvement for integrated infrastructure provision and basic services, access to effective sewerage, water supply and electricity, adequate transport, schools, healthcare services in appropriate locations that best serve the community.

We were the first countries to commit ourselves of securing adequate shelter for all in sustainable human settlement promoted in Habitat 1 and adopting the Community Contract System in delivering the basic services efficiently for the poor communities in underserved settlements.

We are a country with a history for introducing innovative housing and human settlements solutions. We were in the forefront in developing and practising the enabling strategy in housing development.

The Ministry of Housing and Construction under the spearheading of the Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Minister of Housing and Construction, has been tasked with the responsibility for ensuring “Shelter for All”. The national shelter programme, which has been structured to realize this task will be further, expanded towards the alleviation of rural sector poverty through livelihood improvement combined with the provision of shelter.”

All representing countries who participated in this Bureau meeting have made special presentations on their own countries and they have been discussed various shelter and urban issues relevant to their countries and Asia Pacific region.