Brunei’s Fisheries Has Growth Potential
By Shareen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - Regional fishery officials said yesterday that Brunei Darussalam has the potential to develop its fishery further despite the fact that it has limited fishing vessels.

"There is a lot of potential for Brunei's fisheries department to venture into the foreign market as they have fishes that are of high value in the aquaculture business, of the cultivation of the natural producers water in fishes," Suriyan Vichitlekarn, policy and programme coordinator of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre told The Brunei Times.

"In terms of sea-based production or marine' capture fisheries, Brunei has limited entry to the sea due to the oil and gas industry but because Brunei is strategically located in the region, there is definitely a potential for Brunei to tap into the international market," he said.

Vichitlekarn was speaking at the sidelines of a three-day regional workshop on human resource development for fisheries. It has been estimated by the Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources that the value of the fisheries industry in Brunei is $200 million per year on a sustainable basis.

However, Siri Ekmaharaj, secretary general of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre, said that Brunei Darussalam had limited fishing vessels.

"This fact can affect the decision for foreigners to tap into the Brunei market," he said.

"One of the major needs of the fisheries sector is to develop through capacity building." Participants of the regional workshop proposed the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the fisheries sector to include a logistic system, promoting community organisation, cooperation with commercial enterprises as well as strengthening SMEs business planning.

The workshop also concluded that governments played a critical role in developing policies that will support the future progress of the small and medium fishery enterprises.

The workshop, which took place at the Holiday Lodge Hotel in Jerudong, urged governments to find strategies of support from funding agencies to implement follow-up activities with technical advisory assistance from the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre.

Vichitlekam said the focus of the workshop was to brig Various ous delegates working together to help SMEs who were not financially-equipped in the fisheries sector.

"There is a focus on SMEs because the fisheries community in the Bimp-Eaga region is rather small in scale and they need support in the international market, "he said.

Some 35 representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines East Asean Growth Area grouping, (Bimp-Eaga), attended the workshop.

Mr Vichitlekarn, who is based in Thailand, added that there was a need for capacity building to ensure that these SMEs had the ability to meet the requirements of expanding their businesses.

Other outcomes of the workshop include human resource development support in community empowerment of fisheries SMEs, coastal resources management, acquiring techniques of capture fisheries, aquaculture and post-harvest processing.

It is hoped that the recommendations brought up during the workshop would be followed up at future BIMPEAGA collaborative gatherings.

The three-day, workshop is a two-year project named `Human Resources Development for Sustainable Development of Fisheries' and implemented with funding from the Asean-Japan Solidarity Fund.

The workshop is jointly organised by Southeast Asian Fisheries Department Centre and Fisheries Department of Brunei.  -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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