Brunei Darussalam

Brunei Darussalam has long identified Islamic finance as a sector that can be developed to its advantage, both to serve the banking needs of its domestic economy and as an avenue for economic development at the international level. To achieve these objectives, however, it will need to step up investments in human resources.

Thanks to the government’s incentives to take up the latest technology, along with a greater willingness among the private sector to take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) in business, Brunei Darussalam’s ICT sector is witnessing some growth.

The Sultanate’s policy to promote industry as a means of diversifying the economy is starting to produce the dividends the government had in mind when it established the programme on industrialisation, though it still has some way to go before achieving all its objectives.

Efforts to boost the role of the private sector in Brunei Darussalam are set to be stepped up with the government’s new budget, rolled out on April 1, that includes tax reductions and incentives aimed at supporting business development.

With a well-stocked energy sector, international buyers are lining up to access Brunei Darussalam’s liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will be up to officials to ensure that a balance is struck between fuelling overseas demand and supplying the local economy, and in particular, the country’s growing petrochemicals industry.

Recent weeks have seen the Sultanate take some important steps in boosting trade ties with both regional friends and more distant allies. This recent flurry of international links will be good for Brunei Darussalam’s trade position, and may also stand the Sultanate in good stead as it prepares to chair the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2013.