Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah has urged the Gov­ern­ment to place na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty at the cen­tre of the up­com­ing bud­get, ar­gu­ing that safe­ty and sta­bil­i­ty are es­sen­tial pil­lars for sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth, in­vestor con­fi­dence, and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Heer­ah, in a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, said that as the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to present the 2025–2026 Bud­get, it must re­spond to the re­al­i­ties of an in­creas­ing­ly com­plex geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape, marked by glob­al ten­sions, re­gion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and shifts in the glob­al en­er­gy mar­ket. He said that in this en­vi­ron­ment, “the pri­ori­ti­sa­tion of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty must re­main at the heart of na­tion­al plan­ning and de­vel­op­ment.”

“A se­cure na­tion in­spires in­vestor con­fi­dence, sus­tains eco­nom­ic mo­men­tum, and strength­ens in­ter­na­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty,” Heer­ah said. “This Bud­get pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the Gov­ern­ment to un­veil new strate­gies and ini­tia­tives to mod­ernise and for­ti­fy our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty land­scape.”