Her Excellency Ms. Amna bint Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, stressed that Bahrain supports all joint coordination efforts with sister Arab countries to implement the Arab Housing and Urban Development Strategy in parallel with the Kingdom's efforts to implement the urban agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, in particular Goal 11 on "making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable."
The Minister appreciated the progress made by the Arab States in implementing the development goals related to the housing sector and the achievements and gains made in this area in the national reports, noting the coordinating role of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in highlighting those results in international forums.
Minister Al-Rumaihi said that the development gains achieved in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the social housing sector have earned many international entitlements and applauded United Nations, Arab and regional organizations for their impact in providing adequate housing for citizens through a range of innovative housing plans and programmes, reflecting the attention that this sector enjoys from wise leadership and is prioritized by the government's programme.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Planning also noted the growing trend in the region to adopt innovative policies based on the involvement of the private sector in the provision of social housing services to citizens. in the light of the expertise, resources and potential of this sector to support efforts to provide adequate housing for citizens, In this regard, the Kingdom has achieved many positive results on this level. through the development of partnership lines of action with the private sector, namely, the Housing Finance Programme and the State Land Development Rights Programme, noting that these pathways contributed to the provision of housing services to a large number of Bahraini families without waiting periods, reflecting the usefulness of these programmes.
This came at the participation of Her Excellency Mrs. Amna bint Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, and her accompanying delegation in the "89" meeting of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing and Reconstruction, which was launched on Wednesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in Cairo.
During the meeting, Member States praised Bahrain's success in hosting the work of the 33rd Arab Summit, which the Kingdom chaired last May, and noted the positive outcomes of the Summit in various areas.
The meeting reviewed a number of topics on the agenda, including developments in Bahrain's hosting of the website of the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing and Construction. The delegation of the Kingdom made a presentation containing the design of the database and information by Member States, with a view to operationalizing the Council's objectives.
The meeting also discussed developments in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, coordination efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and Arab cooperation with regional and international groupings in the field of housing and reconstruction.
The Council also reviewed the results of the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing and Reconstruction Award, which aims to encourage government agencies and private sector institutions in Arab States to innovate and put forward ideas that contribute to the provision of housing solutions and options and share them among Member States. The Council also took note of the preparations for the celebration of Arab Housing Day.
The meeting saw a discussion on strengthening cooperation among Member States to exchange information on the pilot projects in the field of housing and urban development, in addition to the item of the unification of Arab building codes.
At the conclusion of the meeting, all the items on the agenda were adopted, in preparation for the submission of decisions to the meeting of Arab Ministers of Housing and Reconstruction to be held in Algeria next December.
