Brunei Looks For Two-Way Investment, Cooperation
By Alex How

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei Darussalam will focus on three main areas: ICT related industries and services; agri-business, food and beverages sector; and tourism in the upcoming 5th China Asean Expo, which will be held at Nanning, China from Oct 22 to 25.

This was announced in a press release by Asmah Haji Saman, Acting Director of Promotion and Facilitation Services Division, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei.

"We hope to be able to find and meet partners to further expand ourselves in terms of inward or outward investment in these areas," said the acting director. "From there, we shall move on and look into the possibility of working together in areas of international marketing and technology development," she added.

Asmah also pointed out that CAExpo has given great opportunities to Brunei enterprises and using CAExpo as a platform, several business ventures and networks have been established.

"Last year, there were several business MoUs signed between Bruneian, Asean and Chinese enterprises, such as in ICT, food and beverages manufacturing and materials production and supplies," as cited some examples from the previous exhibition.

"Last year, Brunei was given the honour as the first Country of Honour - thus a lot of media coverage and promotional activities were focused on Brunei Darussalam which has helped tremendously in promoting Brunei Darussalam as an investment and tourism destination not only in Guangxi but throughout China and Asean," she added.

Asmah acknowledged the efforts of the organiser of the expo and paid credit for their hard work. "The expo has been a very successful event in bringing together Asean and China's businesses in one forum and thus is fast becoming a very good platform for business exchanges and networking among Asean and China's business communities," said Asmah.

Throughout the last three years, the number of business delegations from Brunei has increased steadily.

"I believe CAExpo has been well promoted in Brunei. In fact, based on percentage by population, I think Brunei has been sending the largest delegation to CAExpo among the Asean countries," said the acting director.

However, Asmah also pointed out that CAExpo must make good use of their resources in order to generate `repeat' participation.

"What will attract the business community to `come back' and participate again and again would be the result and the business that they manage to generate from this event," she said. "Thus, making sure that the effort in bringing quality and international trade buyers, and providing better business services to the business communities during the CAExpo events are perquisites to attracting more participation," she added.

Asmah also suggested that in order to further two-way investment and cooperation between Brunei and China, they would need to be focus on areas of mutual interest and strength.

"For instance, Brunei is recognised as among the Muslim countries with very strong credibility in Halal assurance. We are promoting related industries in this sector and thus would like to initiate win-win cooperation with other countries in this aspect," as said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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