BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - The BruneiEconomic Development Board (BEDB) signeda land lease agreement with aChinese investor, Huludao City SteelPipe Industrial Co Ltd ( Huludao) onMonday for a $50 million project todevelop welded rounding carbon steelpipe manufacturing facility in BruneiDarussalam.
The project is the secondinvestment made by a company fromChina after the first investment byZhejiang Hengyi which is involved indeveloping an integratedrefinery at Pulau Muara Besar.
Dato Haji Ali, deputy minister at thePrime Minister's office and Chairmanof BEDB who was present towitness the signing ceremony said ina statement that the investment andjob creation from the new projectaugur well with the speech ofBrunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah inconjunction with the New Year 2014 inwhich His Majesty called for BruneiDarussalam to create a more "pro-business" environment in order to spureconomic growth and create more jobopportunities for locals especially inthe private sector.
In fact in the last fewyears, Dato Haji Ali added, theBEDB together with other agencies havealready facilitated the investments amongothers by Mitsubishi Gas Chemicalsand Itochu Corporationfrom Japan for the production of850,000 tons of methanol per year atthe Sungai Liang Industrial Park(SPARK), Zhejiang Hengyi from Chinafor an integrated refinery andaromatics cracker facilities at PulauMuara Besa, Viva Pharmaceuticals fromCanada for halal pharmaceuticals productionat the Salambigar Industrial park andCAE from Canada to build amulti-purpose training center at RimbaDigitalJunction, which will providehelicopter flight training. Several otherprojects are also in the pipeline.When completed, all these projectswill be able to provide about 2,000jobs for Bruneians.
Signing on behalf of the BEDBwas Dr. Haji Abdul Manaf, deputypermanent secretary at the PrimeMinister's office and chief executiveofficer of BEDB while Huludao wasrepresented by its Chairman SongShuxin.
"The project signifies anotherimportant milestone for BruneiDarussalam's efforts to diversify itseconomy away from oil and gas.When fully operational in 2017, themanufacturing facility is expected togenerate employment for about 300people and created other potentialspin-off opportunities particularly forlocal logistics andtransportation companies," said Dr. HajiAbdul Manaf.
Huludao is a market leader inthe field of carbon steel pipesince 1993 and its products areexported to 62 countries around theworld. The new manufacturing facilityin Brunei Darussalam which will belocated at Salambigar Industrial Parkwill have the capacity to manufacture100,000 tons of welded rounding carbonsteel pipes for application in theoil and gas as well as theconstruction industries with an exportvalue of $1,000 million per annum.
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