Falling birth, fertility rates hinder skilled workforce

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM's falling population growth and fertility rate is proving to be an impediment to having an adequate number of professionals to realise the nation's vision of having a diversified and knowledge-based economy.

"Last year alone our growth rate was at a low of 1.8 per cent compared to a three per cent in 1991. In addition to that, total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped from 3.1 per cent in 1992 to only 1.7 per cent in 2006," said Abd Amin Hj Hashim, the acting director of Planning Unit under the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE) at the National Vision 2035 briefing held at the Sultan Bolkiah Vocational School multipurpose hall yesterday.

"Currently, we need qualified workforce in three main areas: lawmakers, administrators and managers, professionals and engineers," he said, adding that this also poses a serious challenge in realising the objective of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2012, which requires more human resources.

These statistics will have an impact on the nation's human resources as in the next five years under the NDP 2007-2012 as it outlines the need to have a highly skilled workforce and the establishment of a knowledge-based economy among others as part of the 30-year long-term development plan, he added.

Moreover, there is a drop in the number of registered job seekers at the Labour Department from four per cent in 2006 to 3.4 per cent last year, he said.

The acting director also touched upon the need for diversifying the economy as highlighted in the National Vision 2035 and NDP 2007-2012.

"At the moment 66.6 per cent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated from the oil and gas sector while the remaining comes from the government and private sector."

"In other words, we are still reliant on the oil and gas industry," he said.

At the moment the government has allocated $9.5 billion for 826 projects under NDP 2007-2012 with more than $3 billion earmarked for social services which include health and education.

Abd Amin further broached Brunei's previous 20-year long-term development plan achievement. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had placed Brunei Darussalam on the 30th position among 177 countries for its Human Development Index (HDI) 2007/08.

"Our next objective is to put Brunei among the top 10 in 2035, which means the country will see improvement in the areas of education, health and per capita income."

Among many things, these three elements are main focus of the 30-year long-term development plan.

The first of its kind to be held in the Belait district, the briefing was a collaboration between the Information Department of the Prime Minister's Office and the Mukim Seria Consultative Council. Present as the guest of honour yesterday was Information Department Acting Director Ismail Mohammad. Also present were the district penghulus and village heads, Belait District Office senior officers and students.

The Brunei Times