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简MIPR inks documents with global enterprises
13th May, 2015
FIVE documents were signed between the Government of Brunei Darussalam and five international parties yesterday, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a Heads of Terms agreement and three Letters of Intent, during the opening ceremony of the International Food and Biotech Investment Conference.
On hand to witness the signings was the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar.
In his opening address prior to the signings, the minister said, “Today you will witness the signing of important agreements with various established multinational enterprises, which signifies the turning of the page of the Bio-Innovation Corridor (BIC) into the second phase of development.
“The BIC offers a highly favourable and competitive tax regime for companies, large and small in nature, to enjoy the best infrastructure and business environment offered by Brunei Darussalam,” he added.
Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Indus-try and Primary Resources (MIPR), Hajah Normah Suria Hayati binti Pehin Jawatan Dalam Seri Mahara-ja Dato Seri Utama (Dr) Haji Awang Mohd Jamil Al-Sufri, during a signing ceremony between MIPR and MC Biotech Sdn Bhd.
The MoU signed yesterday was for a ‘Feasibility Study on Technical Cooperation and Research Cooperation’, and was signed between the government, represented by the Halal Industry Innovation Centre, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR), and New Zealand Food Innovation (Auckland) Ltd, New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd and Massey University, New Zealand.
Hajah Hasnah binti Haji Ibrahim, the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Primary Resources Development) at the MIPR, signed on behalf of the government, while signing on behalf of the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd was its Business Development Manager, Barbara Leppan.
The Heads of Terms agreement between the government and the Mitsubishi Corporation Biotech Sdn Bhd was signed by the Permanent Secretary at the MIPR, Hajah Normah Suria Hayati binti Pehin Jawatan Dalam Seri Maharaja Dato Seri Utama (Dr) Haji Awang Mohd Jamil Al-Sufri, and MC Biotech Sdn Bhd Director, Yuki Kaneda.
Letters of Intent were also signed, one of which was between the government and the Nanning Municipal People’s Government in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.
This Letter of Intent, regarding the Brunei-China Agricultural Industrial Park, was signed by the Permanent Secretary at the MIPR and Zhou Shao Jian, the Deputy Mayor of Nanning.
The government also signed a Letter of Intent with the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China for the Yulin-Brunei Rice Planting Cooperation Project.
Luo Guan Rong, the Deputy Director General of the Yulin Agriculture Commission signed on behalf of the Yulin Municipal People’s Government of China, while Hajah Hasnah, the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MIPR, signed on behalf of the Brunei government.
A Letters of Intent between the MIPR and the Management Committee of Yulin Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Industrial Park was also signed for the “cooperation of Halal pharmaceutical and health food production based on China (Yulin) – Brunei Darussalam traditional Chinese medicine health industrial cooperation project”.
The government was represented by Haji Khairuddin bin Haji Abdul Hamid, the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship) at the MIPR, while the Deputy Mayor of Yulin, Deng Chang Qiu was the other signatory.
Speaking to the Bulletin after the ceremony, Permanent Secretary at the MIPR shed some light on the various signings.
She said that the Heads of Terms agreement signed with Mitsubishi Corporation Biotech Sdn Bhd was a precursor to the actual contract itself.
“The contract will be ready soon and then there will be a ground-breaking. Following the ground-breaking, they will start to build in the Bio-Innovation Corridor. Mitsubishi is the first one to produce Astaxanthin – a red colouring for food, attained from algae.”
On the MoU signed with the New Zealand companies, she said that it “is for working together in research in food. The agreement will see research done in both Brunei and New Zealand, with experts from New Zealand coming here to train our people so that we can do research together.”
Moving on to the Letters of Intent that were signed, she said, “They include a medicinal plant in Yulin, a big area, which will provide resources for the development of the bio-industry here.” These resources, she explained, will come in the form of the plants.
She added that the other Letter of Intent signed with Yulin pertains to its assisting Brunei with a rice-planting project.
Meanwhile, a separate Letter of Intent was signed between foreign companies – Business Development Co Ltd and Shareholding Company Ltd.
Source: Borneo Bulletin
