US Supports Brunei To Diversify The Economy
By Sonia K.

Bandar Seri Begawan - Officials from the United States of America and their Brunei counterparts under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) have agreed to jointly examine how they could deepen the trade relationship and how the United States could support Brunei's efforts to diversify its economy.

It is a priority, which the US thinks is very important, in helping to attract investment. "There are changes that have taken place here and in the intellectual regime and other areas where we want to exchange views," Ms Weisel said.

The officials also discussed ways on how links could be improved with the US private sector. The United States and Brunei also had the opportunity to talk about their common objectives in APEC and under the US TIFA with the countries of Asean, as well as ways on how they could cooperate on achieving a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations in the World Trade Organisation.

Another issue that was examined was environmental cooperation. "The US is quite supportive of the work Brunei has done on the environment.

"We have had a lot of discussions with Indonesia and Malaysia on issues related to illegal logging and issues of concern here in Borneo and the efforts of the Brunei Government are quite commendable. We would like to work together to expand some of that throughout the region as well as to build those onto some of the ongoing efforts we have on the environment," Ms Weisel said.

Officials from both countries also spent some time talking about the work they are doing in Asean.

The US and Asean have a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement where some initiatives are under way already and are looking to conclude those in order to start a new round of initiatives to strengthen the relationship.

"I think the government has developed a very clear picture on what it wants to do on the investment side. The officials here are very aware of the intense competition they face on investment throughout the region and know what needs to be done to attract investment in to this market. They have taken a smart approach of trying to focus on specific areas where they'd like to attract investment rather than all the demands because there are a lot of competitors and they ought to focus on -a few specific areas and try to attract investment in those," Ms Weisel said when asked about her views on Brunei's investment climate compared to other countries.

"The government (Brunei) is working hard on investment and diversification efforts in the tourism sector," she said and added, "Clearly there are some opportunities for eco-tourism here. I know that the government wants to develop those carefully to preserve the environment. If .it's done carefully and with the right kind of promotion, there's real opportunity for that to be quite successful." She had visited Temburong Sunday.

The officials also discussed about aquaculture as one of Brunei's diversification efforts, where US and Brunei have done some capacity building over the last few years. - The Brunei Government is trying to build the aquaculture sector and the US has some experts and consultants here to help with that, Ms Weisel said.

Brunei-US -two-way goods trade totalled around US$600 million in 2006 and a good portion of that came from oil and gas.

When asked how US could help the region in intellectual property rights, she said, "Various Asean programmes under our enhanced partnership agreement that we have, have been doing a lot of capacity building throughout the region on IPR, and all the Asean countries have been participating in various training programmes and various capacity building programmes that we have on IPR.

"I think the issues here are different than those in other countries. Here (in Brunei) you definitely don't have the problem of producing optical discs that many other countries do, which is an advantage. You're not working to overcome the organised crime aspect of that issue.

There is also a greater awareness on the - part of the public in Brunei than in some markets about maintaining a strong intellectual property regime and what that means for attracting investment," she said.-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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