Brunei wants to enter into large scale farming projects in Sarawak and Sabah to grow raw materials for various sectors in the Sultanate, reports the Star/Asian News Network.
The sectors include food processing, flavour extracts, and fragrance and pharmaceutical products.
Brunei has also offered Sarawak and Sabah the opportunity to link themselves to the Sultanate’s broadband facilities to enable greater efficient and broader capacity in telecommunications and Internet connectivity.
These opportunities were offered during roundtable talks between high-ranking officials from Malaysia and Brunei at the sidelines of the Malaysia-Brunei annual Heads of Governments meeting here.
Brunei Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato Paduka Haji Ali Haji Apong said Brunei wanted to enter into more joint ventures with Sarawak and Sabah to explore collaborations in common areas of trade and services that were important to the Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah region.
According to the Minister, Brunei offers a wide range of opportunities from basic food processing industries to more advanced industries such as pharmaceutical industries and production of generic drugs.
The processing of intermediate products in Brunei may be of great value to those companies that specialises in food processing, flavour and fragrance manufacturing.
For this purpose, Brunei is open to the possibility of co-investing in land in Sarawak and Sabah for the farming of key agriculture raw materials to be used in industries in Brunei.
“We hope to see further collaborations in these sectors, and also in the sourcing of corn for processing into food and pharmaceutical ingredients in Brunei,” he said.
Brunei’s modern infrastructure offers a safe haven for storage of critical data.
“Our broadband capacity is currently 80 per cent under-utilised. Brunei also has no history of natural disaster, making the country an ideal location for the establishment of data centres and recovery centres,” he added.
Malaysia’s Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Tun Mahathir said Malaysia was very happy with the progress made by the two countries in industries, and trade and services sectors.