Brunei inks pacts to boost trade, tourism
Brunei and Thailand yesterday signed two memorandums of understanding on trade and tourism cooperation.
The first was between Thailand’s Government Pension Fund (GPF) and the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), while the second was a cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand and the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism of Brunei, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press statement.
His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin yesterday witnessed the signing of the MoUs at the end of a two-day official visit.
Following extensive discussions at Government House, they expressed satisfaction with the countries’ longstanding cordial relations and reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening cooperation in mutually beneficial areas. They also exchanged views on regional issues of common interest.
They reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation in trade, investment, the halal industry, tourism, the digital economy and people-to-people exchanges through existing bilateral mechanisms.
They also agreed to continue working closely to promote economic cooperation by establishing a mechanism at the policy level to determine concrete action plans for promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation and tasked the relevant agencies to discuss the matter further.
They also agreed to strengthen tourism cooperation, including through the “Six Countries, One Destination” scheme, a pilot proposed by Thailand to promote regional tourism cooperation and also agreed to cooperate in health and wellness tourism, ecotourism and Muslim-friendly tourism. In addition, both sides would work towards expanding flight routes from Brunei to Thailand.
They also exchanged views on key regional developments of common interest and reaffirmed their commitment to Asean centrality.
On developments in Myanmar, the leaders shared the same goal of a peaceful, stable and unified country and called on all parties to resolve their differences through constructive dialogue to achieve a Myanmar-led and Myanmar-owned solution. Brunei also welcomed Thailand’s initiative to scale up humanitarian assistance.