KUALA LUMPUR: The Government is actively trying to strike a balance between environmental conservation and economic development, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Prime Minister said this was not an easy path for developing countries, noting that they were often more exposed and vulnerable to environmental threats.
"Integrating economic, health and environmental policies is easier said than done. It takes strong leadership to instil change, ensure a common vision and enhance cross-sectoral cooperation at the national, regional and global levels," he said in his address before launching the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Regional Forum on Environment and Health in Southeast and East Asian Countries on Tuesday.
Najib warned that it was increasingly clear that the environment could no longer be considered an afterthought to economic development, with nations facing common environmental health problems in a global economy.
He stressed that environmental and health issues must be a priority in formulating development plans.
"Governments that choose to place environment and health considerations at the heart of their development can achieve sustainable economic growth and social stability while safeguarding the environment and conserving resources for the future," he said.
He said ongoing development in Malaysia would "inevitably put new pressures" on its rivers, land, air and seas.
Efforts to mitigate them, he said, included introducing the Malaysian Environmental Performance Index to aid with environmental policy-making, with peer-group benchmarking to identify best practices.
He said Malaysia had also implemented the National Policy on the Environment since 1992, while high-impact economic development projects were subjected to mandatory environmental and health impact assessments (EIA and HIA).
"We have tried to prioritise transparency, both in our approach to environmental management and in the monitoring of standards and practices. We have also reinforced the importance of environmental health at every level of the decision-making process," he said.
Najib also called for a mindset change so that people understood that short-term benefits, such as unscrupulous logging for timber, would undermine Malaysia's long-term aims of achieving sustainable development.
"We will not return to a simple reverence for nature. The pressures of development and population are too great for that. But we can and must inculcate a new respect for our environment. Our people and our planet depend on it," he said.
Najib said Southeast Asia's annual transboundary haze remained one of the region's most persistent and challenging environmental issues.
He said this year's severe episode, where air quality had reached hazardous in several areas, was a "stinging reminder" of the human costs of environmental degradation.
"As ever, the worst affected are the young, old and sick," he said, adding that the haze had affected people's health and livelihoods and threatened tourism, health and the environment.
Delegates at the meeting included Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, World Health Organisation regional director for the Western Pacific Dr Shin Young-Soo and United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Dr Young-Woo Park.
(Source: The Star Online)
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