His Majesty’s Government through the 8th National Development Plan has allocated more than one point eight million dollars for the “System of Lightning Data Acquisition, Monitoring and Tracking” or SLAMAT project for monitoring of lightning, which started last November. Under the plan, more than two point five million dollars has been allocated for the “Automatic Meteorological Data Acquisition System” or AMEDAS project for weather monitoring. This was disclosed by the Minister of Communications while officiating at the World Meteorological Day, Thursday.

Pehin Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar emphasised that although in reality we cannot avoid natural disasters from happening, we can put in efforts to reduce its serious impact on the community. At the same time, mitigating here refers to reducing negative impact of natural disasters, which will contribute to safety and prosperity of the world population.

The World Meteorological Day was celebrated to commemorate the establishment of the World Meteorological Organisation, WMO, on the 23rd of March over 50 years ago. Brunei Darussalam joined WMO on the 26th of November 1984. As a member, the nation receives many benefits like free exchange of data as well as working together closely and smoothly in the field of meteorological either at international, regional, multiple or bilateral levels among member countries. Also present at the ceremony were the Deputy Minister and Acting Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications, Dato Paduka Haji Yusof bin Haji Abdul Hamid and Awang Haji Ibrahim bin Haji Ali respectively. This year’s theme is “Preventing and Mitigating Natural Disasters”.

In conjunction with the World Meteorological Day, the Minister of Communications, Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abu Bakar officially opened the new building for Meteorological Services of the Civil Aviation Department.

The new building is located at Block B23 of the Anggerek Desa Flat in Berakas. It is one of the sites for the installation for SLAMAT and AMEDAS projects and serves as a monitoring centre for both projects under the Civil Aviation Department. Previously, both projects were carried out at the department’s headquarters at the Brunei International Airport.

SLAMAT project is used to strengthen the Brunei Darussalam Meteorological Services’ ability and coverage in monitoring lightning incidents which may give negative impact either to the public or air flights. The SLAMAT lightning detector network has five lightning stations installed in all the four districts. Meanwhile, the AMEDAS project involves 14 automatic weather stations installed in all four country equipped with sensors which can measure the wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, sun direction and rain as well as air pollution condition.

The Climate Data and Information Centre is a unit responsible to collect examines process and maintains observation data from meteorological stations in the country. The centre is also responsible for the preparation of monthly reports and summaries onclimatology to be sent to WMO Data Climatology Centre. In fulfilling the needs of local users, the climate data and information is prepared according to the available format or according to the needs of users such as the government and non-government sectors, individuals and the public.Unauthorised fishing activities by foreign fishermen in Brunei Waters decrease

Unauthorised fishing activities by foreign fishing vessels in Brunei Darussalam’s waters are evidently decreasing in number. Last year, there were only 60 cases of unauthorised fishing compared with eighty-five the year before, a decrease of about 29.4 percent. The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources stated this at the launching of a Fishery Patrol Vessel, the ‘MANANGIN’, at the Fish Landing Complex in Muara, Thursday.

Dato Paduka Haji Mohd. Hamid said that all the monitoring and patrolling conducted by the Fishery Department’s Patrol Enforcement officers shows that they were able to reduce the intrusion of illegal fishing by foreign vessels in Brunei Waters and thus ensuring the sustainability of fish resources in the country’s exclusive economic zone is preserved. He added this was a significant achievement in view of all the challenges faced by concerned law-enforcing agencies.

At the function, twenty-six officers received their warrant cards as Law-Enforcing Officer. They were additional workforces whose task is to oversee the patrolling of Brunei Darussalam’s fishing economic zone.The MANAGIN is one of latest patrol vessels to be used to enforce effectively the Fishery Act and in patrolling the country’s fishing zones. The 16-meters length with the capacity speed of 40-knots was built at the cost of 1.5 million Brunei dollars. The MANAGIN will join other three other smaller boats in 16-hour daily operations.

It is estimated that production from the Fishing Industry could reach 400 million Brunei dollars in 2023. According to statistic, in 2004 the Fishing Sector contributed a sum of 84.11 million dollars to the nation’s coffers. This is about 75.1 percent of the estimated total of 112 million dollars that could be obtained annually in the exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles offshore.

The Employees Trust Fund, TAP, continues its ‘Financial Planning’ roadshow for officers and staff from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Development. The roadshow is aimed at creating public awareness on financial planning and management for the future.

A representative of the Employees Trust Fund, Awang Li Ching in his briefing said the effort taken by His Majesty’s Government in having established the TAP since 1993 is in line with the development of human resource in maintaining the welfare of government and non-government employees after their retirement.

Also participating in the roadshow were representatives of the Royal Bank of Canada and the Citigroup Private Bank, speaking on the importance of financial planning. Thursday’s briefing was held at the Theater Hall of the Ministry of Finance in Jalan Kebangsaan.