S’wak trade, tourism office in Brunei soon
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The Sarawak government is moving towards establishing Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office (Stato) in Brunei within this year and has scouted for a suitable location in the sultanate.
The Brunei government has agreed to the setting up of the office which will be the hub of communication between exporters and the business community in Sarawak and Brunei and to showcase products from the state.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, who is also Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development, disclosed this yesterday after a two–day visit to the sultanate.
Together with Datu Liaw Soon Eng, the Ministry of International
This was discussed between the chief minister, myself and His Majesty who agreed to it during the audience.
Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan
Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development permanent secretary, he inspected a potential site for the office at Jalan Kianggeh in the capital on Sunday.
The setting up of Stato Brunei was approved following the meeting between Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah during an audience with the Sarawak delegation led by Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud in conjunction with the Sultan’s birthday.
“This was discussed between the chief minister, myself and His Majesty who agreed to it during the audience,” Awang Tengah said.
He said the Brunei Stato would include a showroom to showcase products from Sarawak and an office to facilitate trade, tourism and business between Brunei and Sarawak.
The deputy chief minister said currently the two sides only have joint tourism promotions and looked forward to cooperation between Sarawak and Brunei on power, telecommunications, tourism, livestock and border development sectors and Stato would play an important role in boosting exports from Sarawak.
He also briefed Malaysian ambassador to Brunei, Ismail Salam, on the plan to set up the Stato in Brunei before returning to Sarawak yesterday.
The Sarawak government will be setting up a similar trade and tourism office in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
It has already set up Stato Singapore which was officially opened by the chief minister in the island state on Aug 20 this year.