Belt and Road association another opportunity for Brunei, China to further economic collaboration

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The formation of the Brunei-China One Belt One Road Association in Brunei is "another opportunity for us to further economic collaboration between the two countries", Mohd Amin Liew, Brunei's Minister at the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister of Finance and Economy said here on Tuesday.

"Over the recent years, Brunei and China have taken many steps forward in strengthening our cooperation such as the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the government of Brunei Darussalam and the government of the People's Republic of China on establishing a joint steering committee," the minister said in his remarks on the oath taking ceremony of the executive committee members of the Brunei-China One Belt One Road Association.

"This MOU puts in place a mechanism for regular consultations at the ministerial level to further promote and encourage cooperation and exchanges in various fields including maritime, economic, commercial and technical areas, bilateral trade, investment and energy between both sides," he said.

Jackson Ting, the president of the new-born association, told Xinhua that the purpose of the association is to provide an unofficial platform of communication, promote closer cooperation between the two countries, create more jobs, and make more contribution to the friendly bilateral relations and to the economic and trade development between the two countries.

Taking note of many examples of bilateral economic cooperation between Brunei and China, the minister said that there are plenty of other opportunities that Brunei and China can work on to continue to attract more foreign direct investments into the sultanate to create more local jobs and spin-off activities for local small-medium enterprises.

"I therefore hope to see more engagements between business communities of both countries, utilising the existing platforms such as the China International Import Expo, the China-ASEAN Expo (CAExpo) and the Brunei-Guangxi Economic Corridor to further strengthen the bilateral trade and investment cooperation.

It is my hope that the Brunei-China One Belt One Road Association will fully utilise these avenues to further promote strategic (cooperative) partnership (between the two countries) and cooperation amongst enterprises of the two countries," the minister said.

"To further deepen the good relations, both Brunei Darussalam and China will continue to make use of bilateral mechanism at all levels to coordinate and advance cooperation in many areas," he added.