Paving Way For Brunei-China Agri Cooperation
By Amin Hosni

Bandar Seri Begawan - The China-Asean Expo will be paving the way for Brunei-China cooperation in agricultural technology.

As one of the key agricultural countries in the world, China has significant advantage in agricultural structure and modern agricultural technology, from whom Brunei could draw upon valuable experiences.

Both countries are optimistic about the bilateral agricultural cooperation.

In October 2007, Mr Niu Dun, Chinese Deputy Minister of Agriculture, paid a visit to Brunei with a group of delegation.

During the visit, he paid a call on His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince.

He also held bilateral talks with the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources on further enhancing the bilateral cooperation in agriculture, fishery, halal food production and processing, and human resources, etc, and consensus were reached on a wide range of issues.

A Guangxi delegation also paid a visit to the Sultanate in April 2008, when Mr Guo Shengkun, head of the delegation and Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangxi Committee, proposed that to further the cooperation between Guangxi and Brunei, both sides will intensify efforts in the priority fields like growing of rice and vegetables, exchanges of agricultural technology, investment and trade in agriculture.

This marks that agricultural cooperation between both countries that has been materialised in specific fields from paper proposals.

The 5th China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) will be held in Nanning, China from October 22 to 25.

It will set up a pavilion of agricultural applicable technology, focusing on agricultural planting and animal husbandry technology, agro-based product intensive processing technology, agricultural biotechnology and modern agricultural equipment, which will create a broader and more effective platform for the cooperation between agricultural enterprises of Brunei and China.

With construction of the China-Asean Free Trade Area (CAFTA) proceeding, there will be greater potentials for cooperation in aquaculture between both countries.

Fishery has become one of the sectors in aquaculture with the fastest growth in Brunei. Statistics show that totally 30 companies nationwide have invested in aquaculture, setting up over 50 fish and prawn ponds that mainly produce tiger shrimps, blue shrimps and groupers.

Apart from for local consumption, these products are exported to the USA, the Chinese Taipei, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Lately, with the growing demand for shrimps/prawns in international markets, the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources has made efforts to increase the output of prawns with foreign investment and technology.

It is reported that Tutong has set aside 500 hectares of land for marine aquaculture.

Brunei and Guangxi of China share a unique advantage in aquaculture cooperation. Guangxi, a player in the Pan Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Programme as Brunei, is one of the major aquaculture bases in China and boasts of advanced technologies and experiences in aquaculture. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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