Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The world's economic turmoil is not expected to affect Brunei Darussalam fundamentally, as the Sultanate is in a very strong and lucky position.

This observation was made by Lord Mayor of London Mr Alderman DaYid Lewis, during a forum on "Seizing Opportunities in Challenging Times" at the Chancellor Hall, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, yesterday.

Mr Lewis pointed out that he was not just visiting Brunei because the Sultanate has been a very long valued partner and friend of England but more importantly, it is "tremendously important" to retain trade links and look together to see how the two countries can work in partnership.

Touching on the global economic turmoil, the Lord Mayor of London said that there has been great damage of trust and fear of the markets. "Despite

all the actions taken in America and Europe, there is still no trust between banks (and this is a very serious matter) to the world," he added.

According to Mr Lewis, there is a need to coordinate a global solution because the economic turmoil is a global problem.

However, the Lord Mayor of London stressed that people cannot expect the G20 to come up with a solution that would classify the market over just one weekend.

"This is unrealistic and it's not going to happen," he said. "We have to work over period of weeks and months until... trust and confidence are restored to the international market, more importantly to the Small and Medium Enterprises."

Mr Lewis believes that SME businesses are vital because they are "what make most of the world work".

He is also confident that London would continue to be a strong financial centre once it gets through the current economic turmoil.

"This is because the nation's strongest assets are not just oil and gas, but more importantly, its people," the Lord Mayor of London said. "Oil and gas might go but people will not."

Mr Lewis added that educating people and getting skilled people were vital to any nation's future.

London has attracted huge international expertise, where one eight of the people in London come from the Indian subcontinent. It also has 300,000 Chinese and 400,000 Americans just working in financial services alone who do not hold a British passport.

The Lord Mayor of London also touched on some projects overseas that he believes would be very useful to Brunei, which has a stable political system and a good judicial system. He said that these two things are what many offshore financial centres do not have.

According to him, running an offshore financial centre and bringing in experts to boost businesses could create new employment opportunities. All the country needs to do to achieve this is to build the structure and implement a regulatory system, he said. This was one of the areas he would like to explore in future.

As the head of the London City, Mr Lewis has a wide business-working role as the global representative of the UK-based financial services industry and particularly promoting links with the world's leading international financial centres.

The half-day forum was organised by UBD in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and supported by the British High Commission.

The forum also featured three speakers - Mr Alvin Liew, an economist with the Standard Chartered Global Research based in Singapore; Mr Wong Chin Loon, a senior manager in SCB Group Wealth Management; and, Mr Samir Dixit, a senior manager of Group Brand Development based in Singapore. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin