AS BRUNEI DARUSSALAM celebrates its 42nd National Day, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam firmly set the nation’s sights on efforts to build a more robust economy as the Sultanate navigates its course towards Wawasan 2035.
In His Majesty’s titah, our monarch highlighted the unique timing of this year’s National Day, coinciding with that of the holy month of Ramadhan. His Majesty duly reminded us all in Brunei that our independence and completing Ramadhan, “would not be realised without sacrifice, patience and pure intentions”.
Further pointing out that, “while doing so, we should boost our efforts in building an economy for the welfare of the Rakyat and the nation.”
For the last few years we, as a country, have pushed very hard to realise and achieve His Majesty’s desire to diversify from Brunei Darussalam’s life blood of oil and gas. And while casual observers may be quick to judge on how that may be slow in fruition, the groundwork continues to be laid by Brunei as it redoubles its efforts to pivot and build an economy that is less dependent on our hydrocabon natural resources.
It has to be duly noted that the Maritime Eco-System that His Majesty touched upon in the very same titah is a very poignant development. Transshipment activities have received significant boost with the development of a ship-to-ship Lay-up Designated Area.
For Brunei Darussalam, with its close proximity to trade shipping routes, and a protected bay in the form of Muara giving safe and secure shelter, it is a positive result for us as businesses in Brunei have a better potential in being competitive regionally.
In essence, the timely development is a maritime area specifically for mooring, maintenance and transferring shipping cargo between vessels, allowing to reduce significantly operating costs, in particular during low demand. The latter part of that sentence has proven to be a thorn in Brunei’s side as many products come into the country, and little coming out resulting in exorbitant rates to export.
It serves to be another part of the jigsaw puzzle for businesses in Brunei Darussalam to be able to get out there, now, on the logistics side, it seems like we are continuing to make steps in the right direction.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work closely and assess some proposals to a private company, a client based in Serasa, which was looking at business opportunities, and, in particular, exports.
Japanese entities are among those that came to view their site in Serasa, and recently still there has been firm Japanese interest in setting up in Brunei Darussalam, their goal was to leverage on Brunei Halal and Food & Beverage exports. Another visitor from the Republic of Korea that came to the same site to assess business opportunities was very excited in the potential at food packaging and Halal food exports from the sultanate. The parties stated their interests but at that point in time the numbers didn’t sit quite right.
Those same interested parties would be greatly interested in another development that Brunei Darussalam is pursuing with its ASEAN neighbour, and partner, Singapore.
The city state and sultanate are committed to another regional strategic partnership, one of many that the two share, notably the Brunei-Singapore Agri-Tech Food Zone. The initiative is aimed firmly at shoring up the supply chain and food security for both countries, and in the same instance, creating business activities for local business and further employment opportunities.
It is this in-depth focus on pragmatic economic problem-solving, such as the maritime developments, in our economy, which may allow the follow through that some of businesses in Brunei require to flourish. We need the impactful consequences on the ground that can help the business case for local businesses to secure partnerships, foreign direct investment to flow, and to make good on the hard work currently carried out by Brunei Darussalam. All of which is designed to see the citizens and residents of Brunei reap what they are able to sow.