German MPs Offer To Promote Brunei
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam granted an audience to five German parlimentarians yesterday at Istana Nurul Iman.

The five members of the German Bundestag are on a working visit to Brunei offering to extend a helping hand in promoting the sultanate as an investment destination for German companies wishing to locate their businesses in Southeast Asia.

"Brunei needs to advertise more to develop the country's economy, and Brunei will have the support of the Bundestag in this endeavour," said Holger Ortel, of the Bundestag's Committee on Transport, Building and Urban Affairs.

Brunei has potential in areas of tourism, natural resources and port businesses, said the parliamentarian in an interview with The Brunei Times.

"Brunei should think of developing areas of estate research and innovation," he said, adding that if done successfully, it could equip the sultanate with resources needed to serve as the "think-thank of Asean".

"Current economic ties between Brunei and Germany are still low and we want to improve this a great deal. We hope to have the opportunity of setting up companies here," he said.

Dr Klaus Lippold, a member of the Committee on Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety, said: "Brunei has potential to embark on niche industries as well as, develop the potential of small and medium enterprises. German SMEs make up 80 per cent of its economy."

"We know that Brunei has SMEs here and we are quite familiar with it," he said, adding that Germany can also share with the sultanate its knowledge of niche industries, which are part of the German economy.

Dr Klaus also said that they are interested in sharing knowledge of the parliamentary system.

"We want to cordially invite Brunei's members of the Legislative Council to Germany to have a first-hand experience and a better understanding (of the system) when they are there."

Brunei's Legislative Council has made similar visits abroad to other parliamentary bodies, such as to the People's General Assembly in Beijing recently.

"We have also learnt points and views from the Legislative Council here that we have not heard of at home," he added.

He said such visits to different countries expose them to different ways of discovering inputs in terms of the parliament, politics and economy, adding that: "The visit is also aimed to strengthen parliamentarian and political ties, and we want to be able to asses the political ties and ways of maintaining them in Asean, learn and then carry the knowledge to our European Union."

The EU is a well-established organisation where he hopes Asean could also learn from. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is remodelling itself around the EU, by recently implementing the Asean Charter and setting a deadline to establish the Asean Community by 2020.

The Bundestag members are also finding out about Brunei's scientists, environmental institutions and ways of preserving the tropical rainforest. "We realise that the rainforest is definitely a valuable factor in Brunei's efforts of diversifying its economy," Dr Klaus said. -- Courtesy of Brunei Times

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