National Planning Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says people are making requests for specific services in their respective areas during the National Development plan consultations.

Sayed-Khaiyum says in the Northern division people have requested for more agriculture field officers in order to improve their product quality and find market excess.

“These are the kind of operational type of issues that we are talking about in terms of service delivery. We’ve got people wanting bank services to come to their areas, Koro and Nabouwalu talking about ATM machines. We have people for example saying we want access to more Social Welfare officers. So these are more operational type of issues so how do you actually get those types of services out to the people in that area – it does not necessary mean putting up a building but it’s the extension of government services.”

The minister says they are encouraging more people to come forward and talk about their aspirations and goals during the public consultations.