BINTULU: Community involvement is crucial in formulating an action plan for a booming town like Bintulu.

Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Development Datuk Talib Zulpilip said without the people’s involvement ,any development plans might not be able to be implemented effectively.

He said this was usually done in developed countries and very rarely implemented in developing countries.

“It is important that policymakers get feedback from the people on the ground and to get them involved in policy-making,” he said at the BDA Townhall session, organised by Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) here, on Thursday.

BDA general manager Rodziah Morshidi and Samalaju assemblyman Majang Renggi were also present.

Talib said local authorities rarely took into account the views of their stakeholders and the local community, and this was a good start for BDA to organise such programme.

He added that in the policy-making process, all parties must contribute.

The designing and planning stages were easy, but the implementation was the hardest part and the local authorities must keep up with current changes, he added.

“We need to look at the issues and the problems thoroughly and to get feedback from the community itself,” he said.

From the BDA Townhall session, Talib said all parties could give their views and share their experiences on how to meet the needs of the ordinary people.

Earlier, four working papers were presented at the session, namely ‘Effective public policing’ by Johan Lau (Sarawak Community Policing Association), ‘Promoting voluntarism’ by Kelvin Wan (Hope Place Kuching founder), ‘DBKU agenda’ by Mohd Hafiz Ali and ‘Sustaining public engagement’ by Dayang Siti Nurbaya Awang Kipli (Miri City Council).