By James Kon & Azaraimy HH

Mr Guo Shengkun, General Secretary of the CPC Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in a meeting with Dato Paduka Awang Haji Hamdillah bin Hj Abd Wahab, Acting Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, yesterday said, "China and Brunei have enjoyed a long-standing relationship and in terms of geographic location, Brunei and Guangxi are separated only by sea. We have a lot of similarities and there is potential for cooperation.

"This time we are ready to share our knowledge in areas of agriculture, fisheries, tourism and port."

He added, "In these four areas, we have already had discussions with our counterparts in Brunei Darussalam. And I have been informed by officials from my side that consensus has been reached."

Dato Hamdillah in his speech pushed both nations to speed up bilateral trade to reach the US$1 billion goal.

He said both sides need to triple the efforts, aggressively pursue more sales of oil and begin spot LNG, accelerate investment drive in mutually beneficial areas like tourism, education, Brunei Halal Brand, agrotech products, aquaculture and deep water capture as well as port and transhipment development.

The acting minister also spoke about Brunei's strong points and areas where it seeks investments.

"Thanks to the support of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, our trip to Brunei has proved to be very fruitful," Mr Guo said.

"In the field of agriculture, Guangxi enjoys a competitive edge in rice farming and other varieties of agriculture products. We can strengthen our cooperation in rice farming to increase crop yield," he said.

"We can set up a certain mechanism and a piece of land as a pilot zone to conduct such projects. Furthermore, we can also cooperate on vegetable and fruit projects.

"As for fisheries, aquaculture and processing technology, we can work together.

"With regards to tourism, Guangxi is rich in resources. Guilin is famed for its beauty and receives millions of foreign tourists every year. I hope we can integrate our tourism resources and form a classical tourist route. It will be conducive for our tourism industry," said Mr Guo.

"Guangxi has already opened its maritime passenger route to Vietnam and we are expecting to extend it to Brunei Darussalam. We are also hoping to open direct flight services from Guilin to Brunei Darussalam.

"As long as we make a combined effort together, step-by-step we can achieve substantial results," he added.

On port cooperation, he said, "We had fruitful discussions on cooperation in logistics and have reached a consensus to explore new international transit routes and transportation."

Mr Guo thanked MIPR for its contribution to the success of China Asean Expo. He also thanked the government of His Majesty for providing a replica of the Royal chariot, which was the highlight of the China Asean Expo last year.

Mr Guo conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for their presence at the China-Asean Expo in the past.

He commended the policies of His Majesty in pushing for diversification to maintain a sustainable economy.

"We are overjoyed to have Brunei as a true friend and partner," he added.

Some 100 Chinese delegates are currently in the country to look at investment opportunities and cooperation.