$2.3b Pulau Muara Port Project Talks In Last Lap
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) will shortly announce the name of the consortium that will handle the US$1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) Pulau Muara Besar port project.

"Our team (BEDB) is in the final stage of negotiations with a global consortium, and hopefully the result would be known by this first quarter," Abdurahman Abdul Aziz, BEDB's senior project officer of business development, told The Brunei Times yesterday.

Potential partners in the development of the port would be either established port operators or shipping lines. The appropriate alliance will ensure that the obligatory shipping volume is maintained to run the port operations smoothly in its initial phase. It would help in providing the expertise and manpower to operate the port effectively at a competitive cost.

Abdurahman declined to give details about the consortium with which BEDS officials have been in discussion to develop the port, which His Majesty's Government envisions to be a global player.

BEDB project documents state that getting a major shipping line with the feeder network and trade volume as a consortium member can easily give the port a good start.

The board said in 2004 that ideally, the government will constitute a consortium, including at least one major shipping line and one port operator with a proven record in marketing and management to conduct Pulau Muara Besar port operations according to world-class standards. In this partnership, the government proposes to contribute 70 per cent of the total investment, including providing necessary infrastructure.

"We have a vision of developing the Pulau Besar port into a transhipment hub, where there will be more importrelated activities including an export processing zone and an aluminium smelting plant. We are quite excited about the development," Abdurahman said.

Port development analysts have stated that to be viable, the Pulau Besar port need only attract an estimated 5 per cent of the projected trading volume within Southeast Asia. When this target is met, it can put Pulau Besar in the world's top 50 container ports, analysts say.

The export processing zone can play a major role in the development of the Pulau Muara Besar port by providing opportunities to both local small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of value-added activities to support the port's operations and generating more employment opportunities for locals. The zone will help attract trade to the port.

"Looking at the future vision of port services, import services, the aluminium smelting plant and the export processing zone, we estimate that it will generate 4,000 jobs," Abdurahman said.

According to the Pulau Muara Besar port's master plan, the project will also help accelerate the sultanate's diversification drive.

This will be supported by the addition of short-term benefits of cost savings on imports that will help broaden and develop the country's industrial base. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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