| James Kon |
THE European Union (EU) continues to give great importance to Brunei Darussalam and is committed to be a reliable partner of Asean, especially in the fields of security, trade and people-to-people exchanges.
To further boost bilateral ties between the two regions, the EU-Asean Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is back on track for negotiations following the successful meeting of the EU Trade Minister with Asean trade ministers in Singapore last week.
The EU’s continued commitment to build on the strong ties with Asean was highlighted by Vincent Guérend, Ambassador of the EU to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, during a press conference held at the residence of the French Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, Christian Ramage.
The EU non-resident envoy, who was on a three-day visit to Brunei Darussalam, met with several officials in the country, including Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Masna, the Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This was Vincent Guérend’s third visit to Brunei, and it focussed on having an engaging exchange with the new administration following the Cabinet reshuffle recently.
“EU’s global strategy was adopted in June 2016 and it lays out precise information and details about EU’s foreign policy. According to the Global Strategy for the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy, there is a direct connection between European prosperity and Asian security. In light of the economic weight that Asia represents for the EU and vice versa, peace and stability in Asia are a prerequisite for EU’s prosperity. EU will deepen economic diplomacy and scale up its security role in Asia,” the EU Ambassador said.
“The French frigate Vendémiaire that was in Brunei illustrates the ambition of France and the EU to step up political and security presence in Asean.
“We are also looking at providing assistance in cyber-security in Asean and Brunei may be interested in this. We would like to see Brunei and the region stay prosperous and peaceful,” he added.
Christian Ramage highlighted that France and Brunei share strong military ties and that the visit of the French ship was timely.
The Ministry of Defence of Brunei Darussalam and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of France conducted its 12th Joint Defence Working Committee (JDWC) meeting recently, he noted.
In terms of economic development and trade, he said, “EU is the one of the largest trade partners of Asean. It is also the first provider of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the region.
“Twenty-two per cent of all FDI in the Asean region are from Europe, which is seven times more than that of the US and twice as much as China. In 2014, EU investments in Asean equalled the combined FDI from US and Japan, the French envoy said.
“Last week in Singapore, the EU Trade Commissioner and Asean trade ministers gathered to renegotiate region-to-region free trade agreement.
“Now it is (trade deal) back on track after the first attempt 10 years ago,” he noted, adding that the FTA will definitely benefit Brunei Darussalam.
He revealed that the bilateral trade between Brunei and EU in 2016 amounted to $328 million for goods (non-oil and gas) and $550 million for services.
“EU is one of the top three players in Brunei’s non-oil and gas sector. We believe in region-to-region trade agreement and we can expand these (trade) figures supported by the regulatory and legal framework in Brunei which is conducive for trade and attracting FDIs into the country. Tariffs are not the main issue because they are low worldwide currently. We will look into intellectual property rights, levelling playing fields for government procurement, investment protection, and giving strong assurance to companies (to encourage them to engage in trade more).”
He reassured that the EU is sincere in engaging in free trade and concluding trade agreements.
This year, the EU will conclude trade agreement with Japan and Mexico.
Negotiations with Vietnam and Singapore have been concluded and signing is expected this year, the French envoy said.
“EU has allocated $268 million in support of Asean Community building until 2020. In addition, EU has pledged $2 billion to each Asean member country to address development gaps and reduce poverty.”
In terms of the people-to people exchange, he pointed out, “We also look at promoting students’ exchange through the SHARE programme, which is a university-level exchange in the Asean region where youths can look beyond their borders and share experiences with their European peers.”
Touching on his meeting with Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Masna, he said, “I am impressed by her knowledge on the relations with the EU. She underlined the ambition of Brunei to diversify its economy and would like see more EU companies investing in Brunei.”
On attracting FDIs to Brunei from European countries, his advice to the Brunei Government is to make the country visible on the radar of international companies by continuing efforts to improve its global rankings on business competitiveness or ease of doing business indices.
“In a highly competitive global scenario, international companies look at these indices before taking crucial investment decisions.”