Brunei - Brunei's foreign direct investments doubled in Q3 last year

Bandar Seri Begawan (The Brunei Times/ANN) - Foreign direct investments (FDIs) into Brunei nearly doubled in value in the third quarter (Q3) of last year from the second quarter of 2011, with investors from the United Kingdom continuing to commit the most to the Sultanate.

The Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE), in a statement yesterday, reported that FDI inflows for Brunei increased by 76.8 per cent from B$273.48 million (US$211.66 million) in Q2 to B$483.64 million in Q3.

UK investments continued to contribute the lion's share or 61.4 per cent (B$297.25 million) of the FDIs, followed by investors from Japan at 22.9 per cent (B$110.62 million), the Netherlands at 14.8 per cent (B$71.98 million) and the US at 0.3 per cent (B$1.48 million).

Brunei's manufacturing sector has overtaken the mining and quarrying sector, in terms of the highest growth in FDI inflows with 220.1 per cent (B$23.78 million), while the latter sector recorded a growth of 144.3 per cent (B$457.96 million).

The mining and quarrying sector was the largest recipient of FDI in the first two quarters of 2011.

FDI inflows, which were defined as "an investment by a non-resident into Brunei Darussalam with a share of 10 per cent or more within a specific period of time", were predicted to see a "mass increase" over this five year period, then acting Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) chairman said in 2009.

The development of projects such as the Pulau Muara Besar were seen to be a major lure for foreign investors, with particular emphasis on upstream and downstream development of the oil and gas sector, the backbone of the Sultanate's economy.

"Traditionally, most of our FDIs are from there and we should really be isolating the upstream and downstream FDIs. The non-upstream is what we want to be monitoring and should focus more on, Dato Paduka Timothy Ong said in an interview in November 2009.

Ubaidillah Masli in Bandar Seri Begawan/The Brunei Times | ANN

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