PH, Brunei talk trade in gas, food, IT, design

BANDAR Seri Begawan—Brunei’s government and its two major conglomerates have expressed interest in helping the Philippines develop its natural gas resources and “halal” food processing industry, while the Philippines has offered to provide technical assistance in information technology and product design.

On the final day of his two-day working visit here, President Benigno Aquino III was able to secure investment commitments from Brunei companies following a succession of meetings yesterday.

“Overall, the meetings were very fruitful and substantial,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma told a news briefing here.

“These companies have made initial investments in the country but not yet on the scale we’d like to see. So this visit was aimed at bringing [this to the] next level so we can increase the quantum of trade and investment in both countries,” said Coloma.

The President met with executives of the Mashhor Group for joint development of the country’s natural gas infrastructure. The Aquino administration is looking to use environment-friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) in the public transport system to help insulate the country from global oil price fluctuations.

“We want to develop distribution facilities but this will require massive resources considering the number of public transport that need to be prepared for conversion to CNG use,” Coloma said.

Mashhor, one of Brunei’s largest conglomerates dealing with natural gas, provides services in energy transport and infrastructure.

Mr. Aquino and his party left for Manila at 3 p.m. on Thursday.